Non-motoring > FaceBook - Sneaking up on your privacy. Miscellaneous
Thread Author: R.P. Replies: 20
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New Thu 11 Aug 11 21:33 
 FaceBook - Sneaking up on your privacy. - R.P.
Copied from a posting on my account. FB had scavenged all my telephone contacts from my iPhone - the cheeky gits had then published them on my "account"

ATTENTION! PHONE NUMBERS OF ALL are now on Facebook! No joke - go to the top right of the screen, click on Account, then click on Edit Friends, Then go to the far left of the screen and click on Contacts. All phone numbers incl your drs, your mum, your bank etc are published. Please repost this on your Status, so your friends can remove their numbers (&mine). Please check yours and UNSYNC yr Blackberry or iPhone and delete the numbers. The instructions are on the right side
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New Thu 11 Aug 11 21:42 
 FaceBook - Sneaking up on your privacy. - Crankcase
Whether so or not, that's exactly the type of creeping behaviour from Facebook that led me to close my account there, along with my Twitter account.
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New Thu 11 Aug 11 21:47 
 FaceBook - Sneaking up on your privacy. - Zero
There have been numerous warnings on here by us about how much of a parasitic virus FB is!

I Have a very limited FB account for that very reason.
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New Thu 11 Aug 11 21:58 
 FaceBook - Sneaking up on your privacy. - Robin O'Reliant
I closed my account there a month ago.
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New Thu 11 Aug 11 23:09 
 FaceBook - Sneaking up on your privacy. - Suppose
>> ATTENTION! PHONE NUMBERS OF ALL are now on Facebook! No joke - go to the
>> top right of the screen, click on Account, then click on Edit Friends, Then go
>> to the far left of the screen and click on Contacts. All phone numbers incl
>> your drs, your mum, your bank etc are published. Please repost this on your Status,
>> so your friends can remove their numbers (&mine). Please check yours and UNSYNC yr Blackberry
>> or iPhone and delete the numbers. The instructions are on the right side
>>

To me the message language straight away screams of being a hoax.

Lo and behold:

www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/faster-forward/post/facebook-faces-down-phone-number-rumors/2011/08/11/gIQAO0vm8I_blog.html

technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/08/10/7333958-dont-freak-out-facebook-didnt-publish-your-mobile-contacts

However, I am not on facebook and have no intention of ever joining.
Last edited by: Suppose on Thu 11 Aug 11 at 23:10
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New Thu 11 Aug 11 23:25 
 FaceBook - Sneaking up on your privacy. - R.P.
I wouldn't have posted it if I hadn't checked my account and lo and behold found my whole iPhone's directory there including my oil supplier and hair-person !
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New Fri 12 Aug 11 05:51 
 FaceBook - Sneaking up on your privacy. - Meldrew
I certainly found some friend's numbers in my FB account but they were all mobiles and I hadn't imported them; I don't have the right sort of phone. On that basis I am supposing that my friends have appended their phone numbers to their accounts and happy for them to be seen. I agree 101% that FB seems to be very intrusive and my privacy settings don't allow anything to be seen other than by "Friends"
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New Fri 12 Aug 11 07:21 
 FaceBook - Sneaking up on your privacy. - Dave_
I didn't bother replying to this thread last night as I thought no-one would be taken in by another scaremongering facebook "warning". Seems I was wrong.
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New Fri 12 Aug 11 07:48 
 FaceBook - Sneaking up on your privacy. - Meldrew
The position is/was as stated by RP, re phone numbers; it is simply a question of whether it bothers you or not and whether you wish to take action on it.
Last edited by: Meldrew on Fri 12 Aug 11 at 07:49
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New Fri 12 Aug 11 07:48 
 FaceBook - Sneaking up on your privacy. - Duncan
So - whether all of the above is a hoax or is factual.

What useful purpose does Facebook serve?
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New Fri 12 Aug 11 08:15 
 FaceBook - Sneaking up on your privacy. - Dave_
>> What useful purpose does Facebook serve?

In its simplest form, it gathers several existing functions into one place. For example, it allows me to share photos with family and friends more easily than by emailing them individually.
Last edited by: Dave_TDCi on Fri 12 Aug 11 at 08:15
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New Fri 12 Aug 11 08:18 
 FaceBook - Sneaking up on your privacy. - R.P.
To keep in contact with some friends who I normally wouldn't. It provides me with some free entertainment - especially with one particular contributor....it entertains me. The only phone numbers that now appear in my "contacts" are my friends who have uploaded them on the site. The man who sorted my garden doesn't need to be there !
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New Fri 12 Aug 11 08:34 
 FaceBook - Sneaking up on your privacy. - Dave
You have a hair person?
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New Fri 12 Aug 11 08:48 
 FaceBook - Sneaking up on your privacy. - R.P.
Slightly less grand, an unisex hairdresser that tends my unruly locks on a monthly basis...Yes 52 and a full head of hair, a little to unruly at times !
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New Fri 12 Aug 11 09:45 
 FaceBook - Sneaking up on your privacy. - BobbyG
Rob, how did you manage to lose the numbers again?
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New Fri 12 Aug 11 09:57 
 FaceBook - Sneaking up on your privacy. - Chas
The only numbers that show are where your friends have added them to their profile details. If they don't want their number to show then they should delete their telephone number. Simples!
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New Fri 12 Aug 11 10:22 
 FaceBook - Sneaking up on your privacy. - teabelly
I'd have thought that is potential for breaching the data protection act. I'd also be lambasting apple for letting a third party application take such data from a phone.

I'm going to see if mine has done the same.

Which it hasn't but the facebook help pages mention a contact sync feature that you can remove data from and 'switch it off on your phone' which infers it is something a user has to choose to do in some way.

Still a bit cheeky to import all contact data. Personally I think it should only import contacts from people actually on your friends list. Not everyone if it must do that.

Linkedin is getting as bad. Just cancelled their 'use photo and name in third party adverts' tick box that has appeared.
Last edited by: teabelly on Fri 12 Aug 11 at 10:26
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New Fri 12 Aug 11 10:26 
 FaceBook - Sneaking up on your privacy. - Mike Hannon
>>To keep in contact with some friends who I normally wouldn't. It provides me with some free entertainment - especially with one particular contributor....it entertains me. <<

Same here. But I don't have an iphone, only an ipod, so presumably FB can't snoop on me.
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New Fri 12 Aug 11 11:13 
 FaceBook - Sneaking up on your privacy. - movilogo
Facebook can't grab your data unless you give your consent or you input them in the first place!

People give away all their details and then blame Facebook. Best if you don't use Facebook at all. But if you can't resist the urge, then use only minimum info.

Not sure whether you noticed, but if you ever want to quit Facebook you'll see list of reasons and one will say "Facebook has created too much social drama for me".

I couldn't resist laughing seeing that.

I was a moderately active FB user for some time. But then amount of drivel I've to put up with forced me not to use FB anymore. I don't miss it and life is more productive without FB.



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New Fri 12 Aug 11 11:05 
 FaceBook - Sneaking up on your privacy. - Dave_
>> Still a bit cheeky to import all contact data

It can't even get it right the other way around. My phone has the facility to enrich phonebook entries with the person's FB status, but out of the 7 or 8 phonebook entries I'd expect it to pick up it's found only two.
Last edited by: Dave_TDCi on Fri 12 Aug 11 at 11:06
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New Fri 12 Aug 11 11:21 
 FaceBook - Sneaking up on your privacy. - CGNorwich


The statement in the original posting is simply not true. The position as already posted in a link is as follows

"Our Contacts list, formerly called Phonebook, has existed for a long time. The phone numbers listed there were either added by your friends themselves and made visible to you, or you have previously synced your phone contacts with Facebook. Just like on your phone, only you can see these numbers."

What is objectionable in that? Isn't that a useful feature? Lots of paranoia and misinformation about facebook by people who don't use it.
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