After writing about Facebook personal privacy issues recently I met a developer at a Thinking Digital dinner tonight that has created a web application that exploits user data from Facebook to dramatic effect.
Tom Scott (@tomscott) has built his Evil app using the Graph API to search public groups about lost phones. The web app randomly displays the private phone numbers of unsuspecting Facebook users.
Scott says that his intention is highlight personal privacy issues on Facebook and has truncated the displayed numbers to make his point.
Evil follows a long line of projects by Scott who describes himself as a geek comedian. Check out and enjoy Breaking the News Salmon in a Dishwasher, The Google Street View Race and other projects on his site.
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Stephen Waddington, Speed Communications. Speed Communications said: Evil web app displays personal mobile numbers from Facebook http://goo.gl/fb/5iaX5 (@wadds) #uncategorized #facebook [...]
You know — I think one can conflate “unsuspecting” with “too damn stupid to live” once in a while. Here’s an example of one such group, the I Lost My Phone group.
Does Facebook really have to protect these mouthbreathers? I’m afraid the answer is “Yes” but it’s an uphill battle.
Incidentally, this stuff has been spider-able for ages. It’s not very valuable information — only a step up from random dialling in terms of efficiencies. Although, I suppose, you could say that the data has been enriched w/ “data stupid” and “technically dim” flags
Hi Matt – Its a game of course. To raise the profile of the issue (and the coder). But herein lies the issue. People aren’t smart when it comes to personal privacy. Zuckerberg is relying on as much.
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