Facebook revamp gives away even more info, warn pros

Security watchers have warned that Facebook's latest revamp will create the tendency to expose more user information. The redesigned profile, launched earlier this week and due to be rolled out gradually over coming weeks, is designed to encourage punters to expose even more information about their day to day lives to the …

[The Fuzzy Wotnot]

No news here!

"is designed to encourage punters to expose even more information about their day to day lives to the dominant social networking site"

And this is news, why? I'd be very surprised if FB decided to try secure information. They rely on you broadcasting your life to all and sundry, that's how they make their living.

Best avoided, if possible.

[Rich 2]

Indeed

I really exciting headline would be "Facemuck reworks site - privacy and security IMPROVED!!!". But that's NEVER going to happen is it?

I have given up trying to tell my wife to be careful on FB; like (it seems) most users of the abhorrence that it is, she just doesn't seem to care enough to bother. And I think that is the basic problem. Most people just don't care! Oh well, up to them...

[yeehaw....]

Man, I feel your pain lol

Same deal here. Little wife likes her FB - had to isolate her laptop from the rest of the family network. A nice quiet, safe, FB sandbox to muck up.

[Sarah Bee]

Re: Man, I feel your pain lol

If you were my husband and you referred to me as 'little wife' I would make you a nice quiet, safe, deep sandbox for you to lie very still in.

[Anonymous John]

That's a bit unfair.

If you check her FB account, you'll find out she's only 5ft 1in and weighs 6 stone.

[yeehaw....]

feminism rears it's head....

Must be a tough political environment where you live.

What the little wife and I call each other has no bearing on our roles in the family and society. My wife has her areas of responsibility that are just as if not more important than my mine and I know it. Must we conform to your theories and judgements of how the world should be even though you know nothing of who we are and what we stand for?

I stand by for your reasoning.

[Anonymous Coward]

Little wife

Sarah, he might be using it to distinguish between one or more wives. He may have one little wife and one wife who is bigger. For all you know he may have en entire harem.

[Sarah Bee]

Re: Little wife

Good point.

[yeehaw....]

Duh. This is facebook....

Big Red Truck.

-Captain Obvious

[Code Monkey]

[sigh]

I deleted most of my interests yesterday (except those that I wanted to contact me).

I reckon I'm heading for another Facecrack exit.

[TeeCee]

"...highlight meaningful relationships."

So they've added some redundant bloat then?

[maclovinz]

1 Concrete Fact of Life

People are stupid.

[Anonymous Coward]

and no law can forbid this

not even under an oppressive regime.

[Someone Else]

No, but...

...most oppressive regimes exploit this, and even count on it.

[Dave 64]

The solution...

...Get a life.

There - fixed that for you

[multipharious]

Bug?

Noticed something interesting. In what looks like a glitch if you have not upgraded to the new profile, at least last night and this morning the old facebook profile page displayed what you commented on friends' pages. It was a snippet of the original comment such as:

John Smith commented on Jerry Smith's status "Hey man did you ever get..."

This was visible for all historical comments. I think they have fixed it, because I cannot reproduce the symptom I am describing.

Nothing on Sophos or any blogs yet, but a twitter search will show this is/was accurate.

[Code Monkey]

Possibly your cache

That sounds very like a cached stylesheet.

[multipharious]

@Code Monkey

Nope. It was a glitchy rollout. This comment preview functionality that I mentioned is now default...retroactively. It is now possible to get a preview for any comment ever made on another users' page.

Still not sure why I got downvoted from someone for reporting something that was not covered in the news.

[Naich]

Don't get it

So you put all your information onto a social networking site so that people can see it, and then act surprised when people can see it? If you want to put information on there but don't want people to know about you then just do what I do - make it all up. My interests are necrophilia and cross stitch needlework.

[Circadian]

too much information

Ahah! We have found Dr Frankenstein.

[Anonymous Coward]

I am sorely tempted...

...to list my main interest as "Identity Theft".

[Number6]

Limited Info

My FB profile contains a few keywords that people who know me would recognise, my internet birthday (close to, but not the same as my real one) and my name. I gave them my mobile phone number so I could send/receive text updates. the email address supplied is one that is only associated with them, so if it leaks I know who to blame.

I don't think I need more than that on a public profile.

[Anonymous Coward]

Colour me unsurprised

Every move Facebook makes is merely an elaborate shell game

[Michael C]

Time to log back in

And reset all my settings back to secure, as I'm sure they made some settings I previously had less secure through the change. nothing new.

There's little or nothing on face book for them to have on me, aside from some associations to a very small list of people whom I know all of personally, but you can never be too careful. The minimum "required" information in the profile is far more than i am comfortable sharing. I essentially have a profile only for 2 reasons: so my wife can have 1 more neighbor in her online games (which is about all she uses it for), and so i can see a feed of some friends who post regularly that i never get to talk to.

[Anonymous John]

Arghh!

I must secure my FB account immediately.

Wait a minute............

I don't have one.

[Anonymous Coward]

You want mine?

You can have - ah wait, nevermind, I don't have one either.

All my friends are on fetlife.com anyway.

[Anonymous Coward]

A title is gratuitous and must contain stuff

I am on Big-Toe Book myself.

[System 10 from Navarone]

@The Solution...

If only getting a life was the solution. Unfortunately, it's those without that are the problem - I certainly never posted pictures to facebook of me shitfaced, or in the drug den, or as hitler at the New Years fancy dress party, or punching the waiter.

Grrr. Curse those Young Conservative get togethers

[Graham Marsden]

Facebook revamp gives away even more info

And in other news...

(You know the rest)

[web_bod]

101 things to do in a paper bag!

Big deal, I list my interests as architecture, it, ice hockey and paper-bagging* - so what if some body is going to try to flog me Eiffel tower shaped memory sticks in paper bags festooned with red wings logos that double as sex toys (the bags not the logos or sticks) - I am a big boy now, I am not afraid to completely ignore the ad, delete the message, tune my spam filter, say no or to invite my entire network to click the crap out of the ad until it goes away.

*never done it, but it sounded interesting - hence an interest!

[Anonymous Coward]

so most on here treat fb as the megaphone tool it is...

.. but a socially networked to hilt friend of mine is endlessly posting foursquare updates which have led me to find out;-

1) He frequents a very seedy titty bar in a major european city on EVERY business trip.

2) He likes to fill his bmw at Shell.

3) I know what time he gets to work (and more importantly so does his boss).

4) I know where his girlfriend lives for when he's off on those business trips.......

fb is not all bad

[MichaelJones]

MichaelJones

Facebook continues to disregard any privacy or security issues that come about with additions that they make to their site. It is high time people realise that in the pursuit of making facebook fun the site is putting alot of our personal information at jeopardy. I've had enough of facebook and im now looking at sites such as MyCube and DIaspora who have made security their highest concern above all others.