Reply With QuoteBloody hell that sounds terrifying.
Having done a search on my own Facebook account I was quite shocked to see the extent of the data that was available to the hackers of some 50 million Fb users.
Every single message sent and received, everyone's details in my personal contacts list, images that I'd received, the list goes on and on. Even seeing the list of third-party companies that Fb had passed on some of my data to came as quite a surprise to me.
Anyone else here had a look at their own data?
R
Bloody hell that sounds terrifying.
Not looked at my own data but deleted my account last week after the Cambridge Analytica story came to the fore. My son tells me that after chatting to his gf on the phone about an online game, adverts for this game started on both their FB feeds. Scary and there's likely more to this Orwellian nightmare. Thing is even though I've deleted the account will they keep the records ?
Just requested a download of mine so will report back soon.
What is that Face and Book you speak of? ;)
PS and while you're at it throw your teevee in the skip and thank me later.
Fas est ab hoste doceri
I’m not sure what people expect when they sign up to these ‘free’ services. It costs millions to develop, host and support the platforms.
Some people quite happily put their entire life out there and play all the daft games and favourite stuff without understanding all that data has a value.
I use Google, Twitter, Facebook and have no doubt they use my data to make money. Using Tapatalk right now and I’m certain they are looking at the stuff I look at to target advertising towards me.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
About 10 years ago I signed up as an FB developer to get access to the APIs. I wrote a small app ('coolbooks') that allowed you to log, show, review and share the books you were reading with your friends. If you liked a friend's book, you could click it and be sent to Amazon. Simple stuff. But I was quite amazed that for anyone who installed the app, I (as a developer) could see, access, and download forever pretty much everything about that person.
Today, there are probably tighter controls on what is shared. Albeit quite hidden to most users. (Go to Settings - Apps and see what “busywork” FB gives you to offer the illusion of control...few will ever check)
But even so, these controls are new and once downloaded, FB had no control over what a dev did with the data. There must be troves of personal data harvested from FB app users all over the place. FB themselves have everything of course, and are disingenious at best to blame all this on third parties. FB actively courted developers and advertisers with the bait of the information they held on you.
As everyone knows, if you are not being charged for a product or service, most likely you are the product. FB makes half a billion dollars a week in revenue from your information. Google (hi gmail, Maps and Android users!) makes almost two billion.
This horse has bolted.
I deactivated my Facebook account in January 2017 as a new year resolution. I didn’t miss it and deleted the account completely in June 2017. I downloaded a copy prior to deletion, as my wife wanted some of the photographs kept. I never really used Twitter, Tumblr or Instagram, but I deleted those accounts as well.
Facebook claim to remove your data from their systems within 90 days of account deletion. I can’t find any sign of it via a simple google search. Google, now there is a company who have a saleable profile of me. Between search engine, chrome browser, chrome os, android os and my gmail account.
Ralphy, how did you conduct your search? It sounds comprehensive and I never knew you could tell which companies were passed my data.
Bobc, your sons experience sounds scary AF, verbal mentions via telephone call leading to ads. My wife’s Facebook is inundated with ads of items I’ve looked at online, on a different system but attached to same network.
What do you mean by chatting on phone. Speaking as in phone call or messaging in some way?Originally Posted by bobc
Don’t believe it if the former, or just a coincidence.
Google WILL develop your profile based on phone calls and phrases you say on those calls.
And as for Alexa, wow guys!!! You've installed a bug in your home
Silly boy!
Ditched FB a long time ago. Not so much because of the privacy issue, but because I was bored of too many folk posting what a wonderful fooking life they where having, even if they weren’t.
Why would Google even be on my iPhone?
Around 10 years ago I was shown how the likes of Facebook harvest your information and how easy it was to 'profile' someone using nothing but info held on facebook etc. Since then I've never used facebook and never will. The maxim that if it's free then you are the product is very true with the likes of facebook and other forms of free social media.
Google Chrome is the worst. Every webpage you’ve ever looked at is logged.
Take a look and you’ll see what I mean.
Abridged from the Google Privacy Policy that you agree to when using Google software and services like Gmail, Android, Maps, Search....
2 billion dollars a week...We collect information about the services that you use and how you use them including device information such as your hardware model, operating system version, unique device identifiers, and mobile network information including phone number. Google may associate your device identifiers or phone number with your Google Account.
How you used our service, such as your search queries, telephony log information like your phone number, calling-party number, forwarding numbers, time and date of calls, duration of calls, SMS routing information and types of calls.
When you use Google services, we may collect and process information about your actual location
We may collect and store information (including personal information) locally on your device using mechanisms such as browser web storage
Our automated systems analyze your content (including emails)
We may combine personal information from one service with information, including personal information, from other Google services
Your activity on other sites and apps may be associated with your personal information
I just downloaded my FB info but wasn't particularly surprised by what I saw...about what I would have expected.
Read this and be afraid: https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...on-you-privacy
This has made me seriously question whether I still want an Android phone.
Sorry i didn’t have the patience to read through all of it, so I don’t know whether the question has been asked already or not..
Is there a way to stop all this tracking a recording of personal info without deleting the account?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I’m in two minds as to weather I should be worried about all this data harvesting or not, I don’t think I am really, I use FB quite a lot I guess and it’s pretty obvious there are data links from other online browsing, EBay being the most blatant. I really can’t see too much of a issue, is it not going to just be the norm now we are all so connected these days? It’s good that the practice is now more out in the open then we can adjust to it accordingly.
Just to play devils advocate, why is it a bad thing ?
Cheers..
Jase
OK, click this link: https://www.google.com/maps/timeline?pb
And this one: https://myactivity.google.com/myactivity
I'm not sure about a deleted account, but for a current one to see what they've kept: Settings>General Account Data>Download a copy of your Facebook data
To see which 3rd-parties they've shared your information with it's Settings>Apps
To access Settings you click on the down arrow at the top-right of your Fb screen.
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
We were talking about this at work this week. A colleague says he looked at the data being processed about him (can’t remember if it was Facebook, google or android) and he says he was listed as married but working away from home, and he says there was a map trace showing his movements since he bought his android phone.
This is pretty sinister stuff.
I'm not on FaceBook, purely on grounds of banality, rather than data protection. It's a bad combination of self-absorbed "look at me" culture combined with wanting something for free, thus I thought it was fairly obvious you were paying for the service with your own data, and that it was a means of selling you stuff wrapped in the pretence of "connecting the world". In fact, FB users are handing themselves to the company on a plate. Same with Google - though they charge advertisers as well as us giving them all the information they need to sell us more stuff - so they're getting paid on both ends (hence why it's an unbelievably valuable business). I wouldn't have an Android phone now, but are Apple any better?
I have previously subscribed to the "I've got nothing to hide, so why does it matter" school of thought, but since the recent CA scandal (as well as previous claims that the US election was compromised), what worries me more that I was probably naive in thinking that this is as far as it went (ie pure commerciality or grave threats to national security), and I can see how having such detailed data can be a dangerous when it is used to influence more wider-reaching decisions.
What also concerns me is that I underestimated the broad range of methods of data gathering, and their sometimes clandestine nature. About a year ago, I was talking to my wife about something, then miraculously she was presented with a advert for that product some time later. She had not searched for it, or related websites. I put it down to coincidence, but my wife was convinced that what she had said had been "heard" by the phone, logged, and then used. It turns out that she may not have been paranoid! This seems to grossly over-reach what I consider the implicit data-for-services bargain made with the tech firms.
These, along with watching Snowdon, concern me much more, and you don't have to be a tinfoil-hat-merchant to see that this could be the thin end of the wedge, both commmercially, and in terms of proportionality wrt civil liberties.
I have now become much more concerned about what these companies are up to. It's probably a bit of a wake-up call for us all.
It's probably too late to turn off the internet and say "Maybe that wasn't such a great idea".
Also true on PC?
I’ve never had Facebook but use WhatsApp (now owned by Facebook), do you think they’re collecting this kind of data from this source too. They could effectively collect all the information from WhatsApp as the OP has discovered. Contact details, ongoing/incoming calls, pictures etc
Anyone thinking of deleting WhatsApp too?
WhatsApp and Fb do share information I believe, despite having initially pledged to remain independent.
R
Last edited by ralphy; 30th March 2018 at 08:43.
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
I downloaded mine the other week, it wasn't complete actually, and it didn't shock me either. FB is just the tip of the iceberg, if you want anonymity then don't use Google, Amazon, Whatsapp, Instagram or any of these things.
Also, bear in mind that the Cambridge thing only got data that is normally shared with apps - and that is not the full list of things you get in your download. That would only ever be available if hackers actually penetrated FB's systems so they had free access to all data. And it would take a while to steal, mine was 350GB. Facebook has 2bn users so that could be 700k petabytes!
Hadn't seen those before, now that is way more scary than what FB has. I must check out what my 86 year old Mum has been up to next time I visit and she leaves the room :-D
I worked with FB on a project 2-3 years ago. They gleefully ran through the depth and accuracy of their profiling, how info is gathered and how its used.
I'm not any stranger to data collection, legality etc but this was like nothing I had come across before. And they thought it was great!
After that meeting I deleted everything facebook, twitter and linked in.
I still use gmail, but thats an accepted trade-off. Whatsapp is harder to ween off, but the switch to Telegraph is almost complete amongst family and close friends.
Sent from my [device_name] using TZ-UK mobile app
Don't do FB or twitter, only TZ UK for me.
As an aside Dave Eggers book "The Circle", fictional and published waay back in 2013, but a cracking and thought provoking read about this stuff and the commodification of your/our lives.
There'll be a massive backlash to this as it becomes more widely known up and down the land. I'd give 70% chance the outlook for fb in 12 months time is very different to today.
As for Alexa, wow. You're not only bugged but you paid for the privilege too. Just wow.
Last edited by catch21; 30th March 2018 at 09:50. Reason: Minor typo
The alexa thing astonishes me frankly.
I hope catch21 is proved right.
Last edited by Passenger; 30th March 2018 at 09:34.
I always get ads on FB for stuff I google (like online stores, various products and so on)
is it possible that they googled the game's name, or used Google to get to the game's website? that would be way more likely than what you are suggesting
exactly my thoughts - nothing shocking there, just the information I chose to share.
Did you choose to share all your private messages?
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
As someone said above, it’s too late to stop it now, we are all too connected by various mediums, I also expect ‘the yoof’ who have grown up with the internet etc and don’t know any different probably embrace and accept the connected world more.
Cheers..
Jase
I do not share PM's, they are just there, because of I chose not to delete them. This is an archive of my posts, likes, PM's and whatnot.
As I am not using google services while logged in, therefore nothing surprising there too, the only thing they were tracking were youtube videos, which I switched off. Plus I have adblock and Ghostery plugins on while browsing, so, good luck Mr Zuckerberg et al to get my online profile :D
Are the messages shared or just stored?
Pretty sure thats for all searches on all web search providers. I've never been near Facebook, just not interested, as I'm sure Google keeps enough tabs on us all.
I get fed up of been bombarded of cats, babies, kids etc.(most doctored) doing daft things from Liz''s Facebook. Her daughter has had twins which is lovely, but there's a constant bombardment of photos and it gets quite enough.
Guess I'm a cynical old sod lol.
They along with a lot more information are stored - and therefore available to anyone who has access to them, i.e. anyone by agreement with Fb or those who have been 'hacked'.
I'd suggest that anyone with a Facebook account should go and look at their own data and decide whether they are comfortable with the above. Settings>General Account Data>Download
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
Any system - email, TZ etc could be 'hacked'.
Personally, not worried about FB. Had one message, now deleted.
I appreciate that too, but then I’m not aware that email providers, TZ, et al are sharing the information with third parties.
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
google?
:-)
This is what I thought as well, but as I said in my above post, in my example my wife was adamant she hadn’t searched for anything even remotely related, and it still came up. (I think it was an ad within FB, but I couldn’t swear to it. She had merely talked about it to me whilst using her iPhone.
I’d dismissed it until recently. Now I’m not sure.
I also wonder what having a gmail or yahoo “free” email account costs me in personal data, and what are the potential consequences of these companies losing that info to hackers.
Is it time for a change?
I believe that DuckDuckGo don’t track your searches. I use it instead of Google.
Twaddle about google and “listening” to your calls, spot on about Alexa.
What surprises me in all this is that people are surprised at the data held. Individuals accepted the terms which allows FB and others to harvest data. How do you think it is that Mark Zuckerberg is worth $50bn by providing free software?
Sent from my iPhone using TZ-UK mobile app
Use Ghostery and DuckDuckGo
Sent from my iPhone using TZ-UK mobile app
He didn't google it but they spoke over mobile phones and also via messenger. So one or the other as messenger is part of fb.
Seems fb do listen to phone conversations though.
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...-a7057526.html
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