I just had something really creepy happen to me on FB, and I'm not sure what to do about it. You've all seen those quizzes that make the rounds, the ones people put in their notes. They are similar to the ones we do sometimes on Questions. I did one that someone sent to me, and then one of my friends did it. A friend of the last person to take the quiz told her she should not be taking these quizzes because they gave information to identity thieves. When I pointed out that the quizzes can be set so that only your friends can see them, he decided he was going to take me to the woodshed. I don't know if he Googled me or went to one of those information places, but he posted all my personal information on my friend's wall: full name, home address, spouse's name, work address, work number and fax, place of employment, work email, and where I go to temple. He said he had "more."
Now I know all that is publicly available information. It can be found through property tax records, and because I teach online, all my contact information for work is out there. The temple stuff is also online because I served on the board of trustees until just a few months ago. I don't know what "more" he had, and I don't want to know. I pointed out that all that was public information and asked him if he felt righteous by having compiled it and posted it online so that a bunch of people I don't know can easily access it. He then said he had "made his point" and deleted it.
This really freaks me out. There's no way this guy could access any of my quizzes because I don't even know him and have my privacy settings so he couldn't see them, so he had to have just used my name to get this information. So what he did didn't even prove his point. But what's really heinous to me is that he did this to begin with. Now that he has deleted the evidence, all I have is the email that came from FB showing that he put it out there. My information sat there for about 15 minutes for all of my friend's friends to see. I wonder if I have any recourse. I wonder if I took it whether he'd retaliate by doing something with my personal information.
How do quizzes give someone your name, address, phone number... or did the quiz ask for this info? I never have this on a quiz or my FB profile. How did this guy find you? Oh he's a friend of a friend... but it sounds like that it has nothing to do with FB quizzes, that he or anyone could do this to any random person in life... it just happens that he used FB to find a person (you) and find out information about this person. For instance, he could just open the phone book and find a person and find all this stuff out about you. So I wouldn't soley blame an FB quiz, although it may be an easier target.
He sounds like a jerk on a powertrip. Can you tell your mutual friend what he did? Sounds a bit like harrassment. BLOCK HIM, at the very least.
Dude is one of those arrogant, mentally ill, know-it-all guys that always has to be right and has to "put people in their place" if they challenge him. He's a first rate asshole, I've known guys like him in my life many times over. I don't know how he got your info, but FB quizzes don't ask for that information, so he probably googled you, which makes him wrong anyway about the quizzes. I'd take it up with your mutual friend and block him like Dana advised. He's fucked up.
A "Friend" did this to you!!!! WTF, that is WRONG on so many levels. Or is this a "friend" of a "friend". Either way he's an ass, you need to ditch these people. Also report him to Facebook. By the way, was his name Colm? That's totally a jerk ass move my Ex boyfriend would've done. Total slimeball.
Quizzes do not give out that kind of information(how could they), however as you already mentioned the info he posted can easily be found by people who know you.
A good way to know what sort of information is out there about you is to google yourself, and then attempt to delete anything that you don't want others to see.
I hate to say it but all of you are wrong.
Facebook does give all your information to the people who design the quizzes. Try one again, or at least start to do one. At first it will tell you that your personal info will be released and do you agree? That's the reason I refuse to do quizzes on FB.
This has become a relatively big news story in Canada:
Facebook breaches Canadian privacy law
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/...ioner.html
Here is the wording:
"Allowing QUIZ NAME access will let it pull your profile information, photos, your friends' info, and other content that it requires to work."
Uhm, why does it need all of that? Even though I restrict what everyone sees publicly, I can take one quiz and share all my info with a complete stranger. Seems out of place to me! Sometimes those quizzes are just spoofs by identity thieves to pull in your info.
The other solution is to put as little as possible on Facebook.
It hardly matters. If you use your real name as your Facebook name, and fill out even the barest of info, like the place where you live, or the place where you work, everything else can be discovered with a Google search.
Facebook isn't necessarily the problem -- it's the face that nothing disappears on the Internetz, and that too much public information is easily accessible, where before you would have to have access to a local phone book, or traipse down to the courthouse to do a records search. Now it's just out there.
The guy was being an idiot with regard to the quizzes, although the quizzes might have you revealing info you hadn't revealed through your "info" page.
My photos and friends list is more of a concern to me. I try to avoid having my info on the web, and I can refuse to include my city and other specific information, but they are just randomly handing out all my available info? Why?
I agree that the guy is an idiot, but unfortunately for Dune he is correct.
In this case, we are using two different definitions of quizzes. We weren't talking about "What color is your aura?" type quizzes you'd take through applications. We were talking about the ones you'd get sent to you through Notes. For example, a friend just sent me one where I'm supposed to post the first 30 songs that come up when I put my iPod in
Shuffle mode. Or one of our members here who is also my friend on FB did one called "The ABCs of Me." That was actually the quiz in question. Most of them ask innocent questions like "Coffee or tea?" or "What's your favorite color?" My point was that if you set your Notes to Friends Only, then only people you know will see the answers (assuming you don't befriend everyone on God's green earth).
This guy was NOT my friend. He is the friend of a friend, and she is absolutely mortified that he pulled this crap. Lindsay, his name is Robert, not Colm, so unless your boyfriend is masquerading on FB in another identity, it's not the same guy. Anastasia is right. To him, my pointing out that there is a safety feature on Notes amounted to a challenge to his manhood or some such nonsense. All he cared about was being right. There was nothing in the ABCs of Me questions, or any other question set/quiz I've taken, that asked for information that I'd use as a security question. I've seen "What is your favorite color?" as a security question, but no one has ever asked me about anything else that I've ever seen as an option for security. So yes, I'm sure he just Googled me and probably went to one of those services where you can pay a small fee and get information about a person compiled to prove his point, which he didn't because he could not see my Notes and thus didn't get any information from them. He had as much information on FB about me as my own students do.
I have blocked him, and I have done a search on him so I have information/recourse if anything happens and it can be traced back to what he did. I considered reporting him to FB, but I don't know that they would/could do anything since he deleted the post. I have fraud alerts on my and DH's credit reports, and I'm researching identity theft insurance now. There's not much else I can do. This jerk has apologized to my friend for his behavior and still claims he was "just making a point," but he could have done that by compromising his own information. But no, he had to pick a random stranger on the Internet whose only crime was pointing out that Notes could be restricted to friends only.
Ziggy Wrote:I hate to say it but all of you are wrong.
Facebook does give all your information to the people who design the quizzes. Try one again, or at least start to do one. At first it will tell you that your personal info will be released and do you agree? That's the reason I refuse to do quizzes on FB.
but that's just what is on your facebook page. How would they get your address, work info and phone numbers?
Regardless there is TONS of info on everyone of us all over the Internet. Because of this thread I did a search on myself and found not only my own personal info, but attached to my info was links to info on my mom and siblings!
The Internet is this crazy tracking tool. One link I found while Googling myself was a photo of my cat from a contest I entered him in! Luckily there are 2 semi-well known people with my exact name so all their info pops up for several pages first in a search.
dune67 I'm so sorry you have to deal with this asshole. Hopefully now that he has "made his point" and will move on. However if he went through a public search and not a FB quiz, he in fact proved your point.
This guy is a class-A asshole for doing that. I agree with Anastasia. He's one of these guys who, when challenged or questioned, just has to make his point - and then some.
I was going to post the exact same article as Ziggy but she beat me to it. FaceBook has 30 days to reply to the commissioner's report. I'm eager to find out how they will respond.
This doesn't surprise me. I now have a Facebook account. I was very happy over on MySpace until all of my friends decided that MySpace wasn't "cool" enough anymore and all transitioned over. They acted as if Facebook was more "mature" or some other BS. Whatever. They're all pretty much the same stuff.
Quote:Facebook does give all your information to the people who design the quizzes. Try one again, or at least start to do one. At first it will tell you that your personal info will be released and do you agree?
Ziggy, are these on all the quizzes? The sad thing is that I never noticed that before. Methinks I will be posting that article over on Facebook to let my friends know.
I've googled myself, too. Fortunately, I have been a HUGE contributor to some academic lists, so most of what comes up are some fairly esoteric issues with Jane Austen, or Native American Literature. But yes, my school's webpage of my comes up, as does some old, outdated things.
And the moment you buy property, anyone can find out where your house is, how much you paid, and how much you are paying in taxes.
I get way more hits when I google my WKYN pseudonym. Interesting.
I agree that much of the content found online can be easily traced and we shouldn't be paranoid. Plus, I agree completely that the guy was acting like a jerk. Still, I think that some people are way too loose with their information online and they don't think about the consequences. Many people are part of 'Facebook Networks' and (unless it has changed, which is entirely possible) that means your information is/was widely available to a large number of people. Often they would include their contact info on the account, meaning that this would be divulged to those fancier quizzes, and to all those on their network. Plus, some of those things seem innocuous and fun, and yet they are serious breeches of security. Have you ever done the "What is your porn star name?" thing, where you list your mom's maiden name and your first pet's name? Guess what: those two questions are often used for 'security checks' with the bank or other institutions.
I'm not saying that people should be paranoid, but I work in a 'security conscious' environment and it's amazing the stories you hear about naive people. I don't try to be paranoid, as I don't need to be, but I avoid quizzes that seem overly specific about info (like my example above) and contemplate doing ones like the iPod one (I would if I had an iPod). I do the Friday Five ones here, with the vague illusion that I have a bit of anonymity.
Dune,
I'd forgotten about those 'Notes' quizzes, and the recent news up here in Canada made me assume the other ones.
Water Lily,
The few that I have tried signing up for have always had that caveat, and according to the Canadian Privacy Commissioner they all do. These are the ones that you sign up for specifically, and you have to hit an "I agree" button. Try it on the next one. Apparently Facebook has been very cooperative up until now, so there may be more changes on their site in the next couple months.
By the way, an irony in life is that the initial google responses for me (as in my name, and me myself - not someone with the same name) are from my work. There are also a few from school, and they are all articles that I have written.
Most of what comes up for me is not really me but another person with my name. Most people don't think to google your ID - like I google my yahoo ID, stuff comes up that way too. Or google your email address.
The guy probably did a google search of your full name and found out your personal info that way. In his warped mind, he was trying to prove a point. I can understand how upset that made you feel. It was really rude.
It doesn't have anything to do with the Facebook applications, quizzes, or anything else.
He googled and did some basic research to get your information.
You've listed your temple before, and where you work isn't hard to find, so it would be pretty easy to get public access to the appraisal district records or voter registration. If he has access to a service (like Lexis Nexis) he can get LOADS on you, DH, and whoever else he wants.
He's an asshole who was misleading you to try and prove he was right.
You should absolutely report him to Facebook, he should never have posted your information without your consent! Put that bastard in his place!