4 ms·

Surely it should ask for his consent prior to doing so?

by xSwag 14y ago

onedev 14y ago
I'm pretty sure it does.
k-mcgrady 14y ago
I think there was a big privacy 'scandal' when Path did this last year and Apple starting requiring apps to ask permission (or they built it in to the OS).
chaz 14y ago
The app asked his friends if it was ok, but obviously not him, as he was not a Facebook user at the time.
- doctorpangloss 14y ago
  Facebook officially does not ever perform any privacy-violating recommendations. Since he can't know that he's present in other people's contact lists, those contact lists are not used to create recommendations in the way you described.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - mjs 14y ago
    I don't believe this is true. I've set up a Facebook account, and provided Facebook an email address only, and had reasonable "Friend Suggestions" appear presumably based on the presence of that email address in other people's address books. Facebook says that they save the contents of your address book, and that it might be used to suggest friends in the future: https://www.facebook.com/help/241275309301947/ https://www.facebook.com/help/241275309301947/.
  - lucb1e 14y ago
    But users do. If you have my email address in your contacts list on Hotmail and you allow Facebook to search for friends in your Hotmail account (most people do I think), then I think you're illegally passing on personally identifiable information.
seiji 14y ago
It's matching his entered phone number with their contacts. They imported their contacts. He didn't have to do anything other than verify his phone number. Solution? Use a one time use phone number to verify anything social.
MSexton 14y ago
First, it didn't do anything on his phone. Suppose Alice and Bob are friends, and have each other in their contacts. Alice uses a simple, prepaid phone that only handles texts and calls. Bob has a smartphone. Bob installs the Facebook app on his phone. The app wants permission to see his contacts, and he grants it. Maybe he's not paying attention, maybe there's a useful feature that needs his contacts, maybe the software asks the phone for permission, and the phone allows it without asking Bob. Whatever. Facebook now knows Alice's phone number. When Alice gives Facebook her phone number to get a text (remember, that's all her phone can do), Facebook recognizes that it has seen this number before. Since Bob has this number, he is probably connected with Alice in some way. Alice sees a recommendation for Bob when she logs on again. Alice only gave permission for Facebook to text her. It didn't look through her phone at all.
- lucb1e 14y ago
  I figured as much. But my grandmother has no smartphone (nor have I), and nobody from the list of recommendations was directly connected to her. And there are people missing, even if the phone number matching was the only way. These two things are what I find weird.
  - Xuzz 14y ago
    But your two cousins, who may have smartphones, could both have your grandmother as a shared friend — and thus, since they were both connected to you and were connected to your grandmother, Facebook assumed you might know your grandmother?
    - lucb1e 14y ago
      Good idea, but I thought of that. They don't have my grandmother as shared friend (she's from the other "side" of the family as we call it, not sure if that's proper English).
- muyuu 14y ago
  > The app wants permission to see his contacts, and he > grants it. Maybe he's not paying attention, maybe there's > a useful feature that needs his contacts, maybe the > software asks the phone for permission, and the phone > allows it without asking Bob. Whatever. Facebook now > knows Alice's phone number. IIRC the app simply doesn't install if you don't grant the permissions. Facebook doesn't find my real friends. Well, the phone I have attached is a prepaid card I haven't given to anyone and I have no real friends in my phony FB account, so I guess there's no way they can find me. If I had an account with real data I wouldn't link my phone to it. Not any phone that my real connections know.

Surely it should ask for his consent prior to doing so?

by xSwag 14y ago

Surely it should ask for his consent prior to doing so?

onedev 14y ago

I'm pretty sure it does.

k-mcgrady 14y ago

I think there was a big privacy 'scandal' when Path did this last year and Apple starting requiring apps to ask permission (or they built it in to the OS).

chaz 14y ago

The app asked his friends if it was ok, but obviously not him, as he was not a Facebook user at the time.

doctorpangloss 14y ago
Facebook officially does not ever perform any privacy-violating recommendations. Since he can't know that he's present in other people's contact lists, those contact lists are not used to create recommendations in the way you described.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- mjs 14y ago
  I don't believe this is true. I've set up a Facebook account, and provided Facebook an email address only, and had reasonable "Friend Suggestions" appear presumably based on the presence of that email address in other people's address books. Facebook says that they save the contents of your address book, and that it might be used to suggest friends in the future: https://www.facebook.com/help/241275309301947/ https://www.facebook.com/help/241275309301947/.
- lucb1e 14y ago
  But users do. If you have my email address in your contacts list on Hotmail and you allow Facebook to search for friends in your Hotmail account (most people do I think), then I think you're illegally passing on personally identifiable information.

seiji 14y ago

It's matching his entered phone number with their contacts. They imported their contacts. He didn't have to do anything other than verify his phone number. Solution? Use a one time use phone number to verify anything social.

MSexton 14y ago

First, it didn't do anything on his phone. Suppose Alice and Bob are friends, and have each other in their contacts. Alice uses a simple, prepaid phone that only handles texts and calls. Bob has a smartphone. Bob installs the Facebook app on his phone. The app wants permission to see his contacts, and he grants it. Maybe he's not paying attention, maybe there's a useful feature that needs his contacts, maybe the software asks the phone for permission, and the phone allows it without asking Bob. Whatever. Facebook now knows Alice's phone number. When Alice gives Facebook her phone number to get a text (remember, that's all her phone can do), Facebook recognizes that it has seen this number before. Since Bob has this number, he is probably connected with Alice in some way. Alice sees a recommendation for Bob when she logs on again. Alice only gave permission for Facebook to text her. It didn't look through her phone at all.

lucb1e 14y ago
I figured as much. But my grandmother has no smartphone (nor have I), and nobody from the list of recommendations was directly connected to her. And there are people missing, even if the phone number matching was the only way. These two things are what I find weird.
- Xuzz 14y ago
  But your two cousins, who may have smartphones, could both have your grandmother as a shared friend — and thus, since they were both connected to you and were connected to your grandmother, Facebook assumed you might know your grandmother?
  - lucb1e 14y ago
    Good idea, but I thought of that. They don't have my grandmother as shared friend (she's from the other "side" of the family as we call it, not sure if that's proper English).
muyuu 14y ago
> The app wants permission to see his contacts, and he > grants it. Maybe he's not paying attention, maybe there's > a useful feature that needs his contacts, maybe the > software asks the phone for permission, and the phone > allows it without asking Bob. Whatever. Facebook now > knows Alice's phone number. IIRC the app simply doesn't install if you don't grant the permissions. Facebook doesn't find my real friends. Well, the phone I have attached is a prepaid card I haven't given to anyone and I have no real friends in my phony FB account, so I guess there's no way they can find me. If I had an account with real data I wouldn't link my phone to it. Not any phone that my real connections know.