5 ms·

Personal Analytics for Facebook

25 points by sparshgupta 14y ago

whocanfly 14y ago
Does it save all my fb info on Wolfram Alpha's server or run the analysis every time ?
- skram 14y ago
  I feel like this is a question I ask myself with every FB app I "connect" with. You never really know what they're actually doing with your data unless you read all their policies and that's just what they _say_ they're going to do.
  - whocanfly 14y ago
    Well, I gave it a try with a temp id. The analytics is impressive. But, I am pretty concerned abt privacy despite their claim of not storing any personally identifiable info.
    - orangethirty 14y ago
      You are worried about privacy yet use FB?
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
- jcburnham 14y ago
  Only time it saves anything is if you enable Historical Analytics. http://www.wolframalpha.com/fbfaqs.html http://www.wolframalpha.com/fbfaqs.html "When do you access my Facebook profile? We only access your Facebook profile when you use Wolfram|Alpha Personal Analytics for Facebook, unless you have enabled Historical Analytics, in which case we will access your profile periodically. Your data is securely stored on our servers and is protected by industry-standard encryption. Your profile is only accessible to you, through Wolfram|Alpha Personal Analytics for Facebook."
skram 14y ago
If you can edit the title, it'd be better as "Wolfram Alpha updates their Personal Analytics for Facebook" or something since it is indeed an update and not totally new.
- jcburnham 14y ago
  Agreed.
  - sparshgupta 14y ago
    Unfortunately I don't think I can.
    - jcburnham 14y ago
      No worries, thanks for posting it so quickly!
oboizt 14y ago
This looks like fun. I'm totally cool with them having my data. Just give me pretty graphs. :)
jmix 14y ago
It used to be that, in order to get access to someone's rolodex, you'd have to befriend them and do a ton of things with them to maintain that said friendship. And even then, you still had to go through them to take advantage of that rolodex of connections, where they would keep rough tabs on who you were and how often you took advantage of these connections, so that they could come back to you when they need to take advantage of your connections in turn. Looks like these days, someone like Wolfram can get full access for the price of a few cute graphs. At least, the data that the egomaniacal Wolfram gets his hands on is limited to those people who are easily fooled by shiny gifs.
- jcburnham 14y ago
  Unless you enable Historical Analytics, we delete your data after one hour. http://www.wolframalpha.com/fbfaqs.html http://www.wolframalpha.com/fbfaqs.html "I’m concerned about the privacy of my account information. What is done with my Facebook data? We value the trust that our users put in us, and are committed to maintaining the highest standards of privacy protection. In order to do analysis on your Facebook data, it is necessary to cache it temporarily on our servers. We acquire the data through the Wolfram Connection app using the Facebook API, respecting whatever privacy settings you and your friends have given to Facebook. Our system is set up to cache your data on our servers for one hour, which allows you to perform queries efficiently. The default behavior is to delete personally identifiable data after one hour."
  - businessleads 14y ago
    Schooled by the Alpha Wolfram.
  - jmix 14y ago
    Great, then you can respond to some observations and answer some questions: 1. Your FAQ is at odds with your privacy policy (http://www.wolframalpha.com/privacypolicy.html http://www.wolframalpha.com/privacypolicy.html) which states that you can collect and retain Personally Identifying Information. How do you explain the discrepancy? 2. In a conflict between a "FAQ" and Privacy Policy, which one is the officially binding document? Why should I entrust my data to comments made by a pseudonymous user or to something that is called a FAQ? 3. Your privacy policy is subject to change without notice. How can I be assured of any guarantee given that you have this blanket clause? Why would you not offer your users to opt out of any changes that weaken their privacy? Please back up your responses with URLs to legally binding documents that provide strong guarantees we can rely on. Thanks.
HaloZero 14y ago
Is there any plans on setting it up so you only do analysis for a certain time frame? Who are my top comments in the past year vs all time?
- jcburnham 14y ago
  Yes! We call it Historical Analytics. We're waiting till the next release to enable the visualizations, but you can start collecting data now by enabling it.

25 points by sparshgupta 14y ago

whocanfly 14y ago

Does it save all my fb info on Wolfram Alpha's server or run the analysis every time ?

skram 14y ago
I feel like this is a question I ask myself with every FB app I "connect" with. You never really know what they're actually doing with your data unless you read all their policies and that's just what they _say_ they're going to do.
- whocanfly 14y ago
  Well, I gave it a try with a temp id. The analytics is impressive. But, I am pretty concerned abt privacy despite their claim of not storing any personally identifiable info.
  - orangethirty 14y ago
    You are worried about privacy yet use FB?
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
jcburnham 14y ago
Only time it saves anything is if you enable Historical Analytics. http://www.wolframalpha.com/fbfaqs.html http://www.wolframalpha.com/fbfaqs.html "When do you access my Facebook profile? We only access your Facebook profile when you use Wolfram|Alpha Personal Analytics for Facebook, unless you have enabled Historical Analytics, in which case we will access your profile periodically. Your data is securely stored on our servers and is protected by industry-standard encryption. Your profile is only accessible to you, through Wolfram|Alpha Personal Analytics for Facebook."

skram 14y ago

If you can edit the title, it'd be better as "Wolfram Alpha updates their Personal Analytics for Facebook" or something since it is indeed an update and not totally new.

jcburnham 14y ago
Agreed.
- sparshgupta 14y ago
  Unfortunately I don't think I can.
  - jcburnham 14y ago
    No worries, thanks for posting it so quickly!

oboizt 14y ago

This looks like fun. I'm totally cool with them having my data. Just give me pretty graphs. :)

jmix 14y ago

It used to be that, in order to get access to someone's rolodex, you'd have to befriend them and do a ton of things with them to maintain that said friendship. And even then, you still had to go through them to take advantage of that rolodex of connections, where they would keep rough tabs on who you were and how often you took advantage of these connections, so that they could come back to you when they need to take advantage of your connections in turn. Looks like these days, someone like Wolfram can get full access for the price of a few cute graphs. At least, the data that the egomaniacal Wolfram gets his hands on is limited to those people who are easily fooled by shiny gifs.

jcburnham 14y ago
Unless you enable Historical Analytics, we delete your data after one hour. http://www.wolframalpha.com/fbfaqs.html http://www.wolframalpha.com/fbfaqs.html "I’m concerned about the privacy of my account information. What is done with my Facebook data? We value the trust that our users put in us, and are committed to maintaining the highest standards of privacy protection. In order to do analysis on your Facebook data, it is necessary to cache it temporarily on our servers. We acquire the data through the Wolfram Connection app using the Facebook API, respecting whatever privacy settings you and your friends have given to Facebook. Our system is set up to cache your data on our servers for one hour, which allows you to perform queries efficiently. The default behavior is to delete personally identifiable data after one hour."
- businessleads 14y ago
  Schooled by the Alpha Wolfram.
- jmix 14y ago
  Great, then you can respond to some observations and answer some questions: 1. Your FAQ is at odds with your privacy policy (http://www.wolframalpha.com/privacypolicy.html http://www.wolframalpha.com/privacypolicy.html) which states that you can collect and retain Personally Identifying Information. How do you explain the discrepancy? 2. In a conflict between a "FAQ" and Privacy Policy, which one is the officially binding document? Why should I entrust my data to comments made by a pseudonymous user or to something that is called a FAQ? 3. Your privacy policy is subject to change without notice. How can I be assured of any guarantee given that you have this blanket clause? Why would you not offer your users to opt out of any changes that weaken their privacy? Please back up your responses with URLs to legally binding documents that provide strong guarantees we can rely on. Thanks.

HaloZero 14y ago

Is there any plans on setting it up so you only do analysis for a certain time frame? Who are my top comments in the past year vs all time?

jcburnham 14y ago
Yes! We call it Historical Analytics. We're waiting till the next release to enable the visualizations, but you can start collecting data now by enabling it.