4 ms·

The title seems very misleading, his friends list hasn't actually been discovered, but rather a method that could discover parts of it. Question for the arm ch

by fleitz 12y ago

The title seems very misleading, his friends list hasn't actually been discovered, but rather a method that could discover parts of it. Question for the arm chair lawyers: If he published said friends list could the FB denial of a vulnerability be construed as evidence that he didn't hack them as the functionality is intended and authorized?

dattemp5341 12y ago
Yes, gathering publicly available data is definitely authorized. On the other hand, publishing it could get you in trouble if you do it without the person's consent. Source: armchair lawyer
- abritishguy 12y ago
  Scraping facebook is against the TOS.
  - psykovsky 12y ago
    Terms of Service aren't law.
    - abritishguy 12y ago
      They practically are in the UK under misuse of computer act.
peterwiese 12y ago
if there's no precedent, so it's hard to say, even in a statutory system.
kubiiii 12y ago
HN, 1492. Christopher Columbus discovers America. HN user comment : pretty misleading title, large parts of America are most probably not discovered yet. Joke aside, I've seen far worse titles than this one.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- a1a 12y ago
  To be fair it would really be misleading as he wasn't the one who "discovered" America. >>He was the first person to establish long and meaningful >>connection with the New World that would eventually tie >>Europe to the Americas, but it is a misconception that he >>was the first to “discover” America. http://sites.psu.edu/mmancini/2012/09/08/1-columbus-was-the-first-a-misconception/ http://sites.psu.edu/mmancini/2012/09/08/1-columbus-was-the-... Additional source: http://web.dsbn.edu.on.ca/~William.Randall@dsbn.edu.on.ca/FOV1-00141BFF/FOV1-00151235/Vikings%20%231.pdf http://web.dsbn.edu.on.ca/~William.Randall@dsbn.edu.on.ca/FO...
  - kubiiii 12y ago
    Consider my post a alley oop assist ;)
  - kamjam 12y ago
    To be really fair, Columbus was searching for India when he first discovered America so I doubt he even knew what he had stumbled upon
    - dragonwriter 12y ago
      IIRC, he continuously insisted that he had reached the ("East", as we now know them as a result of him being wrong) Indies, in fact.
okamiueru 12y ago
The video shows how this "discover parts of it" can be used together with simple queries to acquire profiles that likely share common friends with the target. Then it accumulates common friends with each of these. For the case of Zuckerberg, with a single start query ("People who like Spotify and Facebook Security and live in United Statesand work at Facebook") it produced 486 friends from Zuckerberg's friends list, a list he had marked as only viewable by his friends. It might not be an exhaustive list, but it certainly shows a way to circumvent a protection most people think is in place, when they chose "only friends can see my friends list". In other words, the title is far from "very misleading". This is what that vulnerability allows.

by fleitz 12y ago

dattemp5341 12y ago

Yes, gathering publicly available data is definitely authorized. On the other hand, publishing it could get you in trouble if you do it without the person's consent. Source: armchair lawyer

abritishguy 12y ago
Scraping facebook is against the TOS.
- psykovsky 12y ago
  Terms of Service aren't law.
  - abritishguy 12y ago
    They practically are in the UK under misuse of computer act.

peterwiese 12y ago

if there's no precedent, so it's hard to say, even in a statutory system.

kubiiii 12y ago

HN, 1492. Christopher Columbus discovers America. HN user comment : pretty misleading title, large parts of America are most probably not discovered yet. Joke aside, I've seen far worse titles than this one.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
a1a 12y ago
To be fair it would really be misleading as he wasn't the one who "discovered" America. >>He was the first person to establish long and meaningful >>connection with the New World that would eventually tie >>Europe to the Americas, but it is a misconception that he >>was the first to “discover” America. http://sites.psu.edu/mmancini/2012/09/08/1-columbus-was-the-first-a-misconception/ http://sites.psu.edu/mmancini/2012/09/08/1-columbus-was-the-... Additional source: http://web.dsbn.edu.on.ca/~William.Randall@dsbn.edu.on.ca/FOV1-00141BFF/FOV1-00151235/Vikings%20%231.pdf http://web.dsbn.edu.on.ca/~William.Randall@dsbn.edu.on.ca/FO...
- kubiiii 12y ago
  Consider my post a alley oop assist ;)
- kamjam 12y ago
  To be really fair, Columbus was searching for India when he first discovered America so I doubt he even knew what he had stumbled upon
  - dragonwriter 12y ago
    IIRC, he continuously insisted that he had reached the ("East", as we now know them as a result of him being wrong) Indies, in fact.

okamiueru 12y ago

The video shows how this "discover parts of it" can be used together with simple queries to acquire profiles that likely share common friends with the target. Then it accumulates common friends with each of these. For the case of Zuckerberg, with a single start query ("People who like Spotify and Facebook Security and live in United Statesand work at Facebook") it produced 486 friends from Zuckerberg's friends list, a list he had marked as only viewable by his friends. It might not be an exhaustive list, but it certainly shows a way to circumvent a protection most people think is in place, when they chose "only friends can see my friends list". In other words, the title is far from "very misleading". This is what that vulnerability allows.