Comments on: Facebook Bug Leaks Birthday Data

By: Morgan Storey

Morgan Storey — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:57:00 +0000

@Navin: yep, you are too deep into security to see the outside world they said. Besides they can only see that if I add them… but it is a leak I replied, they don’t need to add you. It is like hitting your head against a wall.

By: Navin

Navin — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:15:57 +0000

And let me guess…they told U tht U were crazy and were reading too many hacking books….atleast tht’s wht my friends told me…they’re like ” Dude, the guys at facebook care bout our privacy!! They’ve gotten security experts working round the clock trying to protect our data”

Ya “dude”, don’t come crying to me when Ur personal details gets stolen and misused

By: Morgan Storey

Morgan Storey — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 00:32:19 +0000

@Navin: very true, just interesting to see the changes. The internet is just like the real world, only a little bit behind the times. Security has not yet entered the whole common consciousness, some still “leave their door open” or just have the basic lock and key when they living in a bad a neighbourhood. The internet as a whole is a bad neighbourhood, a lot of miscreants, kids that want to get their name on a popular overpass.

Last night I was having a discussion with a couple of non-security, non-IT, friends who had no issue with all their info being on facebook. I tried to explain that they have your name, and your DOB your identity is pretty close to forefit.

By: Navin

Navin — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 16:10:37 +0000

Oh yeah…privacy seems to be the keyword today…its almost like people have grown horns and a tail (I refer to the devil here incase U don’t get it!! :) ) Noone cared bout privacy earlier coz even if Ur id was hacked what would U lose??A few mails?? But now with millions of $$$ on the net, and real $$$ on the line…Privacy has certainly taken centre stage.

By: Morgan Storey

Morgan Storey — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 09:50:58 +0000

@Navin: Just re-read your post, early Unix days the admins hated when AT&T put in passwords, so everyone just set there password to password, so everyone knew each others and could get in and get there work done. Times have changed so much, one day it may seem strange to post personal thoughts to a website as it is letting people in to your psyche.

By: Morgan Storey

Morgan Storey — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 22:53:26 +0000

@lyz: I am always surprised by friends and ex-collegues that have their facebook profiles open for anyone to look at, including dob and other details. Facebook needs to protect these people from themselves. Show only limited fields to any random that looks, and maybe ask for less details, saying these details aren’t required and may reduce your privacy. Though that doesn’t make good business.

By: lyz

lyz — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:23:15 +0000

Well with this kind of issues, they should really start working on their codes esp. with the growing number of Facebook users and the fact that most of them have a little knowledge on the technical side.

By: Navin

Navin — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 10:41:17 +0000

ya, I still remember this TV report concerning online privacy. There was a black N white video showing a librarian who was in the national media scene coz she refused to keep a password for her library server account….she was so sure that doing this would not affect her privacy!! sheesh

Its simple in my opinion….Instead of Giving your details and then choosing “don’t show my friends”, simply don’t provide any details at all!!

In India, some bloggers who openly posted about politically sensitive issues, were literally hunted down and their blogs were suddenly shut down with no apparent reason…There’s very little freedom of speech…its all just in tht piece of paper we call the constitution!!

By: Morgan Storey

Morgan Storey — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 08:04:49 +0000

@Navin: agreed but it is kind of sad that the net has come to this. I remember the days when you could post anything and everyone would pretty much respect your privacy. Even whois data isn’t safe a while ago someone started pranking one of my clients on her relatively new phone number, the only place we could find it was in her whois, well that has now been changed. Very sad.

By: Navin

Navin — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 14:15:41 +0000

@ Nobody_Holme

the links right above Ur comment mate!!

The BBC report was aired on the net news show “Click” for 3 whole episodes and this says a lot abt the leak.

Simple solution……just don’t give away data that you don’t want to become public……its much more sensible than providing the data and then checking the “don’t share this with others in my network” button!!