7 ms·

Facebook Graph Search: Marketing Opportunities and a Potential Privacy Nightmare

49 points by fryed7 14y ago

dsr_ 14y ago
About You: [EDIT] I like falsifying statistics and Lying to Facebook
- feralmoan 14y ago
  I'm a 77 year old Filipino lady who's crazy about sci-fi and gets to some pretty wild outdoor parties
InclinedPlane 14y ago
This was, of course, 100% predictable. Facebook has never given even a fractional, hypothetical shit about privacy, except in so far as they are absolutely compelled to by their users, which is rare. They certainly have shown little evidence that they have ever thought seriously about the deeper implications and privacy impact of any features they have rolled out.
lifeisstillgood 14y ago
I see Facebook as a walled garden, just as AOL was, and I have often looked forward to a day when people shared their updates in an open and non proprietary format. This just points out that utopia has its downsides - even without a walled garden we would share this stuff - and the graph would still exist. Facebook is crap at privacy but frankly it's just sharing what we want to share (with our friends) I think Scott McNeally was horribly right - privacy is gone
LogicX 14y ago
Site down. Cache: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?hl=en&q=cache%3Awww.stateofsearch.com%2Fsearch-graph-privacy%2F http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?hl=en&q=cac...
jere 14y ago
I had a long, snarky comment about how no sane person would do X, Y, and Z on their public profile. But then I realized graph search shows you to friends of friends. This is a potential shitstorm and I'm not sure I value my facebook account enough to be in it.
venomsnake 14y ago
Well ... if they are male chances of liking porn and guns are so high that you shouldn't bother searching. And in the last 10 years the notion that everybody is a freak in his numerous personal ways began to take hold anmog the populace. But the institutions became more easily offended and prude. But I suppose with the inevitable dieout of the current gen of employers the next just won't bother with searching ... it will be like - why bother - I will find crap for everyone.
- paulgb 14y ago
  There are lots of guys who don't like guns. I've only lived in a few liberal US cities so maybe my perception is skewed, but I (as a Canadian) thought the gun-loving american stereotype largely represented a minority.
  - omni 14y ago
    Gun ownership seems to be in the high 40% range according to Gallup data. http://themonkeycage.org/blog/2012/07/21/the-declining-culture-of-guns-and-violence-in-the-united-states/ http://themonkeycage.org/blog/2012/07/21/the-declining-cultu...
    - Turing_Machine 14y ago
      "People willing to tell a stranger on the phone that they own a gun" is not the same group as "people who actually own a gun". At all.
      - refurb 14y ago
        Exactly, I would assume it's probably higher than 40%. There are an estimated 270M civilian-owned guns and 132M households in the US. So basically 2 guns per household. If you estimate gun ownership at 50%, that's 4 guns per gun-owning household.
        Turing_Machine 14y ago
Tichy 14y ago
How would Facebook know who likes porn (except assuming everybody likes porn, obviously)? Those who say so on their Facebook profile are presumably not very concerned about that information leaking out?
- bilbo0s 14y ago
  Well... Most are logged into FB when they browse their porn, so FB definitely knows what porn and how often the user browses it. Whether or not that info would end up in the graph, I don't know. I don't THINK it would? Not sure. In any case, FB definitely HAS the information. Just a matter of whether they would let anyone else have it. I could see it being a valuable "background check" type service. Actually, now that I think about it... FB tracks your browsing whether you are logged in or not. So they would probably have A LOT of information on people who like porn.
  - johnnymonster 14y ago
    I would really love for you to prove that FB or any other website for that matter can sniff the site traffic of any other window or tab that you have open, when you are logged into facebook on another window/tab. Cookies and history are locked by domain, plain and simple. Unless you have a conspiracy that FB is planting spyware on peoples computers.
    - Tichy 14y ago
      Almost every web site has a Facebook button. That's how they do it. There is also the possibility of web site owners cooperating on the server side to track users. Maybe not as common yet, but not inconceivable.
  - businessleads 14y ago
    Facebook has said clearly that the only information that will be searchable is that which is entered into Facebook and it will be displayed in accordance with whatever the original privacy setting was. The people who shows up for "pr0n" wrote it as one of their interests on their profile and set that to public "friends" or "friends or friends".
silverbax88 14y ago
I don't want to sound mean, but if people aren't smart enough to keep their lives out of Facebook, then let them get burned. It's not rocket science. I've had a Facebook account for years and there is nothing - absolutely NOTHING -on my Facebook account that I would worry about an employer seeing. That means no political views, no off-color humor, NOTHING that I would not say or post in public, in broad daylight. I will never understand why some people can't get this through their heads.
- bilbo0s 14y ago
  Keep in mind that FB can, and does, track your browser usage whether you are logged in or not. So even though some info may not currently be in the graph, they certainly have a pretty good dossier covering everything you do on the internet. It's not only what you put on your FB that counts, it's anything you have done on the internet from a browser.
  - superuser2 14y ago
    Facebook uses that information to target ads. If you're going to claim that Facebook makes that data available to prospective employers, prove it.
    - throwaway2048 14y ago
      that claim was not made.
    - bilbo0s 14y ago
      Guy... What are you talking about? I never made that claim.
    - silverbax88 14y ago
      Are you arguing with someone else? That claim was never made.
  - graeme 14y ago
    Is there a reliable way to stop this browser tracking, apart from quitting Facebook?
amaxerlite 14y ago
the solution is simple, don't put anything online you don't want anyone to see, this should be known by now. Also this is the most wretched and terrible website layout I've ever seen, I couldn't even finish the article and will never return to this site.
jentulman 14y ago
Off topic, but that jumpy, sticky page title is really really annoying. It jumps over the point I like to scroll the top of the paragraph I'm currently reading to.
mindcrime 14y ago
Many of my co-workers are "friends" with me on Facebook anyway, and I post so much pro-gun related material, that no-one has to ask to know that I'm solidly pro-gun. I also login to Facebook from work, on my work laptop (this is considered acceptable at my workplace, as long as you don't spend all day on there, and get your work done). OTOH, I do my pr0n surfing at home, on my own time, using Chrome in incognito mode, and don't advertise anything about it to anyone. The moral of this story? Stuff I want kept private, doesn't go on Facebook in the first place. If it's on Facebook, by definition, it's something I don't mind people knowing.
dromidas 14y ago
I didn't know we had any competition named "Porn and Guns". Cool name though.

49 points by fryed7 14y ago

dsr_ 14y ago

About You: [EDIT] I like falsifying statistics and Lying to Facebook

feralmoan 14y ago
I'm a 77 year old Filipino lady who's crazy about sci-fi and gets to some pretty wild outdoor parties

InclinedPlane 14y ago

This was, of course, 100% predictable. Facebook has never given even a fractional, hypothetical shit about privacy, except in so far as they are absolutely compelled to by their users, which is rare. They certainly have shown little evidence that they have ever thought seriously about the deeper implications and privacy impact of any features they have rolled out.

lifeisstillgood 14y ago

I see Facebook as a walled garden, just as AOL was, and I have often looked forward to a day when people shared their updates in an open and non proprietary format. This just points out that utopia has its downsides - even without a walled garden we would share this stuff - and the graph would still exist. Facebook is crap at privacy but frankly it's just sharing what we want to share (with our friends) I think Scott McNeally was horribly right - privacy is gone

LogicX 14y ago

Site down. Cache: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?hl=en&q=cache%3Awww.stateofsearch.com%2Fsearch-graph-privacy%2F http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?hl=en&q=cac...

jere 14y ago

I had a long, snarky comment about how no sane person would do X, Y, and Z on their public profile. But then I realized graph search shows you to friends of friends. This is a potential shitstorm and I'm not sure I value my facebook account enough to be in it.

venomsnake 14y ago

Well ... if they are male chances of liking porn and guns are so high that you shouldn't bother searching. And in the last 10 years the notion that everybody is a freak in his numerous personal ways began to take hold anmog the populace. But the institutions became more easily offended and prude. But I suppose with the inevitable dieout of the current gen of employers the next just won't bother with searching ... it will be like - why bother - I will find crap for everyone.

paulgb 14y ago
There are lots of guys who don't like guns. I've only lived in a few liberal US cities so maybe my perception is skewed, but I (as a Canadian) thought the gun-loving american stereotype largely represented a minority.
- omni 14y ago
  Gun ownership seems to be in the high 40% range according to Gallup data. http://themonkeycage.org/blog/2012/07/21/the-declining-culture-of-guns-and-violence-in-the-united-states/ http://themonkeycage.org/blog/2012/07/21/the-declining-cultu...
  - Turing_Machine 14y ago
    "People willing to tell a stranger on the phone that they own a gun" is not the same group as "people who actually own a gun". At all.
    - refurb 14y ago
      Exactly, I would assume it's probably higher than 40%. There are an estimated 270M civilian-owned guns and 132M households in the US. So basically 2 guns per household. If you estimate gun ownership at 50%, that's 4 guns per gun-owning household.
      - Turing_Machine 14y ago

Tichy 14y ago

How would Facebook know who likes porn (except assuming everybody likes porn, obviously)? Those who say so on their Facebook profile are presumably not very concerned about that information leaking out?

bilbo0s 14y ago
Well... Most are logged into FB when they browse their porn, so FB definitely knows what porn and how often the user browses it. Whether or not that info would end up in the graph, I don't know. I don't THINK it would? Not sure. In any case, FB definitely HAS the information. Just a matter of whether they would let anyone else have it. I could see it being a valuable "background check" type service. Actually, now that I think about it... FB tracks your browsing whether you are logged in or not. So they would probably have A LOT of information on people who like porn.
- johnnymonster 14y ago
  I would really love for you to prove that FB or any other website for that matter can sniff the site traffic of any other window or tab that you have open, when you are logged into facebook on another window/tab. Cookies and history are locked by domain, plain and simple. Unless you have a conspiracy that FB is planting spyware on peoples computers.
  - Tichy 14y ago
    Almost every web site has a Facebook button. That's how they do it. There is also the possibility of web site owners cooperating on the server side to track users. Maybe not as common yet, but not inconceivable.
- businessleads 14y ago
  Facebook has said clearly that the only information that will be searchable is that which is entered into Facebook and it will be displayed in accordance with whatever the original privacy setting was. The people who shows up for "pr0n" wrote it as one of their interests on their profile and set that to public "friends" or "friends or friends".

silverbax88 14y ago

I don't want to sound mean, but if people aren't smart enough to keep their lives out of Facebook, then let them get burned. It's not rocket science. I've had a Facebook account for years and there is nothing - absolutely NOTHING -on my Facebook account that I would worry about an employer seeing. That means no political views, no off-color humor, NOTHING that I would not say or post in public, in broad daylight. I will never understand why some people can't get this through their heads.

bilbo0s 14y ago
Keep in mind that FB can, and does, track your browser usage whether you are logged in or not. So even though some info may not currently be in the graph, they certainly have a pretty good dossier covering everything you do on the internet. It's not only what you put on your FB that counts, it's anything you have done on the internet from a browser.
- superuser2 14y ago
  Facebook uses that information to target ads. If you're going to claim that Facebook makes that data available to prospective employers, prove it.
  - throwaway2048 14y ago
    that claim was not made.
  - bilbo0s 14y ago
    Guy... What are you talking about? I never made that claim.
  - silverbax88 14y ago
    Are you arguing with someone else? That claim was never made.
- graeme 14y ago
  Is there a reliable way to stop this browser tracking, apart from quitting Facebook?

amaxerlite 14y ago

the solution is simple, don't put anything online you don't want anyone to see, this should be known by now. Also this is the most wretched and terrible website layout I've ever seen, I couldn't even finish the article and will never return to this site.

jentulman 14y ago

Off topic, but that jumpy, sticky page title is really really annoying. It jumps over the point I like to scroll the top of the paragraph I'm currently reading to.

mindcrime 14y ago

Many of my co-workers are "friends" with me on Facebook anyway, and I post so much pro-gun related material, that no-one has to ask to know that I'm solidly pro-gun. I also login to Facebook from work, on my work laptop (this is considered acceptable at my workplace, as long as you don't spend all day on there, and get your work done). OTOH, I do my pr0n surfing at home, on my own time, using Chrome in incognito mode, and don't advertise anything about it to anyone. The moral of this story? Stuff I want kept private, doesn't go on Facebook in the first place. If it's on Facebook, by definition, it's something I don't mind people knowing.

dromidas 14y ago

I didn't know we had any competition named "Porn and Guns". Cool name though.