Facebook Stole Every Number in Your Phone

[jim_slagle]

Facebook Stole Every Number in Your Phone; Here’s How to Undo the Damage (http://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/2011/08/12/facebook-stole-every-number-in-your-phone-heres-how-to-undo-damage/)

By Zach Epstein
Published August 12, 2011
| BGR

This may come as a shock considering how seriously Facebook takes your privacy, but if you’re a Facebook user with one of Facebook’s mobile applications installed on your iPhone or one of several other smartphones, you’ve been robbed. Each and every contact stored on your phone is probably now also stored on Facebook’s servers, as was re-re-rediscovered by Facebook users this past week.
Removal instructions and to read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/2011/08/12/facebook-stole-every-number-in-your-phone-heres-how-to-undo-damage/ (http://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/2011/08/12/facebook-stole-every-number-in-your-phone-heres-how-to-undo-damage/#ixzz1UqBtb7Ct)

[Doc]

:eek: I shouldn't be surprised ... but I am. Dang if I didn't sucker in and download the stupid facebook app for my iphone. Never used it much but I installed it. That means my contacts are all there. :pat: :bonk: Another reason I should simply close my account.

[VeraBlue]

Couldn't log onto FB earlier today...perhaps they were fixing the problem. I looked now and there are no numbers next to my friends.

[jim_slagle]

Another reason I should simply close my account.

From what I hear, you should delete your info first. If you just close the account your info still resides on their servers.

Jim

[jim_slagle]

Couldn't log onto FB earlier today...perhaps they were fixing the problem. I looked now and there are no numbers next to my friends.

Did you have the facebook app installed on your cell phone?

That's how they get the phone numbers.

Jim

[Mama]

Yep...they had mine. I just removed the stupid app from my smartphone that I never used anyway and then hit the "Remove Imported Contacts" from my PC. They're gone now. Thanks Jim!

[VeraBlue]

I do have it on my blackberry....and see no numbers on facebook.

[Mama]

Did you go to your account click on "edit friends" and then on your friends page look to the left and click on "contacts"?

[homecook]

Fortunately, I never installed the app for FB. The numbers never showed up for me.....Thanks for the info jim. I'll pass it along.....

[lifesaver91958]

I don't do facebook on any phones but I have noticed that they are storing conversations that we have with family and friends in the chat box and I don't like that. Does anyone know how to un-store these conversations?

[VeraBlue]

and upon further searching, there were the numbers. But, if I'm the only one who can see that page, what does it matter?

[GotGarlic]

On the Facebook page, it says that if these friends shared their contact info with you, it will appear there, so it's not just coming from your phone. Also, I noticed that, for the most part, the Facebook page only lists one of my friends' numbers, usually their mobile number. For many of my friends, I have their home and work numbers on my phone as well. So the FB page isn't storing all the contact info I have for my friends.

[AllenOK]

One of the many reasons why I don't have a smart phone. PeppA got a Blackberry a couple of weeks ago, and sure enough, all her contact info was moved over to FB.

[Keltin]

and upon further searching, there were the numbers. But, if I'm the only one who can see that page, what does it matter?


That’s the point, you are not the only one that can see that page. The FB Admins can as well. And if they so choose, they can sell that info to telemarketers and who knows who else meaning all of YOUR contacts are now THEIR contacts.

Just like Doc and the Mods here can tell the IP address of all NCT users and even do a whois to see where they are located, the FB guys can do much more…….if they choose. And that choice is about money.

Phone companies (and now VOIP & Cell Providers) have had this power for aeons, but they are governed by the feds, FB is not. At least not yet.

[Sass Muffin]

13362

and so is everyone else who can on the internet.

[Keltin]

The product I develop and work on provides phone service (one aspect of triple play service) and we are bound by law to support CALEA which allows for phone tapping. Technically, VOIP can’t be tapped like conventional phone lines, so we have to put in special code so that it complies with CALEA and allows it.

Yeah, THEY are watching you! :lol:

[Sass Muffin]

Unrelated perhaps to the thread, but a member of a forum threatened to turn me in at work for violating HIPAA privacy, amongst other things.
That member was banned off the forum she initially made the threat on and several others.
If you think this internet activity is funny when it comes to privacy and idiots who make such threats, OR try to tap into your security.. well.. it's not funny.

[Keltin]

Cripe. HIPAA is some heavy hitting ****! There was a guy that worked with us at my day job years ago. Besides being a Component Engineer for manufacturing, he was also a First Responder.

Many years ago, there was a bad accident in town involving some teens. Messy business, and two died. He was one of the first on the scene. The next day at an ECO meeting, he was going on and on and on about it in graphic detail. Grossed out a few people and really angered a young mom that was part of the ECO team. Someone in that meeting turned him into HIPAA. I don’t know who, but HIPAA came down on him like a ton of bricks and he was booted from EMS in a flash. He left my company (day job) not long after that.

[Sass Muffin]

I said nothing, nor have I ever said anything that would actually violate HIPAA.
This was a member with a burr up her ass jonesin' for anything to cause trouble with me.
That could have cost me my job if she'd played it right.
She's history.
Thank God.
End of that story.
Period.

[Keltin]

Glad you dodged that bullet! HIPAA interviewed all of us in that meeting that day, it was a real nasty affair. They don't play.

[Sass Muffin]

As I said, if she'd played it right.
There was no bullet in the first place.
She was full of shit.

People need to pay mind of what they post on the internet, and who may have a bone to pick with you.
Some people have nothing better to do with their time- than to for some reason have something against people they don't even know.

This is where the silliness of Facebook can often come into play.
If someone at least knows your first name, area.. your kin.. anything.. they can search you.
As for the apps and whatever the current problem is, I'd suggest those who are so addicted to Facebook to the point that they can't live without it.. get rid of it.
Never understood the fascination anyway.

[Sherman]

Facebook has recently changed its format, and it is stirring up scorn and rejection from a lot of its members. I don't like the changes either, It says that there are even more changes to come!

[Sass Muffin]

Facebook has recently changed its format, and it is stirring up scorn and rejection from a lot of its members. I don't like the changes either, It says that there are even more changes to come!
While I am not a FB fan Shermie, I did hear something about this tonight on the evening news.
Something about a news ticker being added?
Just found a link here.

http://consumerist.com/2011/09/facebook-adds-ticker-rumored-to-be-adding-new-buttons-read-listened-watched-want.html



Facebook rolled out some new tweaks this week, like adding a real-time "ticker" of all your friends' updates in the right sidebar, and making pictures bigger in the news feed, along with a few other tweaks. Some people woke up to them and promptly starting making Facebook status updates on how much they hate the new Facebook. Well, there's a few ways to roll them back and get the "old" Facebook.

The other changes include subscribe to people's news feeds you're not even friends with, and, in a Google+ inspired move, organizing friends by what kind of friend they are. And it's a bit easier to change who can see each individual item you post. For instance, you might not want your ex-boyfriend to know about the awesome kiss you just had with the guy you met at the party.

Sound like too much? If you simply want to get rid of the news ticker and use the Chrome web browser, you can give installing the Facebook News Ticker Remover a whirl. For even deeper controls over your Facebook user interface, there's Better Facebook and F.B. Purity, among others.

Every time Facebook makes an overhaul, users complain that they want the "old" Facebook back. Then when Facebook makes more changes, users complain that they want the "old" Facebook back, the same one they were complaining about being changed before. Hardcore people will figure out how to undo the changes, but most people will just accept them, because if you want to be connected online, you pretty much have to be on Facebook.

But these changes are just the beginning. It's been widely rumored that Facebook is adding several new buttons in addition to the "Like" button. A source tells Techcrunch that the new buttons will be "Read," "Listened," "Watched," and "Want." It's supposed to give users a more granular control over how their recommendations show up to others and make it easier for people to discover new media based on what their friends are checking out. It will also be another data mining bonanza for advertisers and marketers. The news is supposed to come out tomorrow at Facebook's big developer conference tomorrow. Expect another big privacy discussion to follow thereafter.

[Sherman]

In this case, some things, at times, are better off left as is.

In other words, if it isn't broken, don't fix it.

[Sass Muffin]

Everything changes sooner or later Sherm.

[Sherman]

Yeah, but some for the better and others for the worst. This change is for the worst.

[Sass Muffin]

Yeah, but some for the better and others for the worst. This change is for the worst.
I think I can understand how you must be feeling Shermie- but you'll just have to figure out how you can live with it, if you want to.

[Sherman]

I think I can understand how you must be feeling Shermie- but you'll just have to figure out how you can live with it, if you want to.




Facebook is supposed to be allowing its members to switch their account pages back to the old way, if desired, but when I tried to do it, it friggen wouldn't let me.

[Sass Muffin]

pssssssst, Shermie..:hide:

13884

[Phiddlechik]

google+

[Kimchee]

The ticker isn't for us..... it's a money maker for Facebook.
The article I read explained how...
If you see a post from a friend, linking a music video or song from
Rhapsody, and you click on it... You will get a free 2 week trial
membership from them automatically. Other companies' links will
do things like showing part of a video or song, then restricting the
rest to paid members, with membership deals of course.
A fair number of other examples were given too.

(Facebook never changes to improve our experience.... the last change added
more sidebar area for ads, and increased our page use... for more ad exposure...)

[Sass Muffin]

Kimchee, I joined Facebook in it's infancy.
Found it boring after a while.
Then a lot of other things like people telling me "you need to dress up your page!"
The only reason I joined was to talk to my daughter (step daughter) in England.
We now talk on Yahoo and cam with eachother when she's online.

It seemed goofy after a while, so I cancelled the account, but not before I started getting a lot of spam and crap that was related to being a member there.
Don't miss it, wouldn't go back if someone paid me.

The September 2011 Facebook changes are inspiring much wailing and gnashing of teeth amongst its userbase. Yet again, users are getting distressed by Zuckerberg's modifications to their beloved social platform.

http://blogs.computerworld.com/18978/facebook_changes_draw_ire_new_news_feed_gets_few_l ikes

[Phiddlechik]

I've never gotten spam related to facebook stuff. I use it for photo sharing, talking with relatives, old friends. Found people from 30+ years ago on it. But, I'm giving google+ a try, looks interesting.

[Sass Muffin]

I've never gotten spam related to facebook stuff. I use it for photo sharing, talking with relatives, old friends. Found people from 30+ years ago on it. But, I'm giving google+ a try, looks interesting.
My account was hacked.
My yahoo mail account has been hacked before.
It's nice to know that there are persons so interested as to take the time to do this shit.
All of my accounts are pretty secure right now, few as they are.

[Sherman]

pssssssst, Shermie..:hide:

13884




That's about what it sounds like now! Hah!!! :bonk:

[Doc]

Shermie, here is another image Sass shared over on my other forum (see below)
http://www.forumsforums.com/3_9/showthread.php?p=488691#post488691

As for Google+, same thing as facebook with a different name. Like others I was curious so I tried to open an account. They require your real name (I didn't see how they could possibly enforce that so no worries), then in the sign up process they asked for my cell number. Nope, not giving that to them. So they told me to try again later, for now they have all the beta users they needed. LOL.

Google has always been all about info gathering. The browser they put out years ago (Chrome) raised the bar in how much info it gleaned from the users computer. After complaints they backed it off a tad, but I still don't trust them. After my attempt to join Google+ it simply reinforced my beliefs that google is not your friend. They are in it to make money and to gather all the data they can on you to use to make money down the road. Much the same as facebook. It's all about data and money.

Sure, I was taken in by facebook also. It's nice to hook up with folks I had not talked to in years. But after the novelty had wore off I still did not talk to them regularly. It is a tool to catch up and find out what others are up to. If I cared enough about them I would stay close, but that is not the case. We all fade apart all over again. I have to admit, and I am surprised by this, that I feel closer to you all, folks I have never met face to face, who I talk with daily here on our internet cooking forum than I do with most folks from my past that I knew way back when. Strange but true. I suspect a number of us feel that way and that is why our forums keep growing.

[Carolina Cooking]

I've never gotten spam related to facebook stuff. I use it for photo sharing, talking with relatives, old friends. Found people from 30+ years ago on it. But, I'm giving google+ a try, looks interesting.


I sure did ...tons of spam & my norton was earning its $$.I put everything to private & cleaned out 'friends'. In fact I don't use it that much, not a fan. I am old old school. I like to actually talk to my people lol

I am stunned at what folks put out there for the public to see. :sad:
In fact I don't think I want to know what ppl are doing with their time every hour on the hour. I mean get a life for gripes sake. :sad::sad:

[Phiddlechik]

O.K., maybe I will "get a life," certainly not here, I guess. After all, I must not really care about those people I lost track of 30 years ago.

see ya... not. have a good one.

for gripe's sake.

[Adillo303]

An interesting read. It puts things in perspective. Facebook is not about you silly, it is about the money they can make off you.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/22/opinion/rushkoff-facebook-changes/index.html?iref=allsearch

[Carolina Cooking]

O.K., maybe I will "get a life," certainly not here, I guess. After all, I must not really care about those people I lost track of 30 years ago.

see ya... not. have a good one.

for gripe's sake.




I was not talking about you, sorry if you took it that way.

[Doc]

O.K., maybe I will "get a life," certainly not here, I guess. After all, I must not really care about those people I lost track of 30 years ago.

see ya... not. have a good one.

for gripe's sake.
Phiddlechik, please do not take any of the posts here personally. Obviously we all have facebook accounts. We've all tried it and use it to our advantage. Some folks who know we spend time on our internet cooking forum would tell us to get a life, cause it's not for them. That's okay. Different strokes for different folks. As CC said, she was not singling you out for using facebook or google+. She quoted you to address the spam email issue and point out that she had gotten spam emails because of her facebook account.
No disrespect or harm intended.

[Doc]

This reinforces what we have been speculating about for both Google and Facebook:

From the link Andy provided above:


The boardroom discussions at Facebook are not about how to help little Johnny make more and better friendships online; they are about how Facebook can monetize Johnny's "social graph" -- the accumulated data about how Johnny makes friends, shares links and makes consumer decisions. Facebook's real customers are the companies who actually pay them for this data, and for access to our eyeballs in the form of advertisements. The hours Facebook users put into their profiles and lists and updates is the labor that Facebook then sells to the market researchers and advertisers it serves.

[BreezyCooking]

Ugh. It's threads like these that make me oh so very happy that I do not, nor do I ever plan to, join Facebook or any of its ilk. Whatever I may be missing by this choice is well worth missing in my opinion. Anyone I haven't kept in touch with over the years, I have no desire to keep in touch with. All my family & friends that I desire to keep in touch with, do so via e-mail, snail mail, & telephone. Works for me.

[Sherman]

As of late, Facebook has become so friggen S.L.O.W!!!

Also, the SOB, won't respond right away. Keeps on freezing up!!! I'm almost ready to give up the ghost on it. It's just ridiculous!!!

[Sass Muffin]

Ugh. It's threads like these that make me oh so very happy that I do not, nor do I ever plan to, join Facebook or any of its ilk. Whatever I may be missing by this choice is well worth missing in my opinion. Anyone I haven't kept in touch with over the years, I have no desire to keep in touch with. All my family & friends that I desire to keep in touch with, do so via e-mail, snail mail, & telephone. Works for me.
:applause: