Websites Can Now Access Your Facebook Account

So I was surfing the web today, when I came across a site with a girl telling a story about how when she now visits a restaurant review site her facebook account appears on the top of the sites page in a small window (not a pop up), I thought it to be strange but didn't think to much of it, she could have been fibbing for all I know.

Guess what happened when I went to the next site? The same thing happened to me, I had a window on the bottom of the page (not a pop up), with a picture of me within a facebook style boarder; It definitely caused my eyebrow to raise.

Here are some exerts from the girls story:

I recently logged onto Yelp.com/la to check out a pizza joint that my friend and I were headed to that evening (something that I do before visiting any restaurant for the first time). But when I arrived at the Yelp page, a blue bar mysteriously appeared across the top with my Facebook profile photo.

So I sat there for a second looking at my Facebook photo -- on Yelp -- and I read the nearby message: "Hi Tamika. Yelp is using Facebook to personalize your experience. Learn More - No Thanks." At the bottom of the screen were photos of my friends Stephanie and Anna, and the message said "2 of your friends are already on Yelp. Sign up and make sure you don't miss their reviews." I had no idea what was going on. How did Yelp have all of my Facebook information? I came here to find out about pizza, paninis and pasta.

After leaving her site i went to a photobucket site, where I had my very own experience of the same nature. See here

Whats going on with this, how are these sites able to load my facebook information? And how likely is that information to be leaked or shared with someone else?

Has anyone else on ATS had this happen to them yet? Did it cause you to raise an eyebrow as well?

I know facebook has horrible privacy features, but I never thought they would go to this extent.

Read the girls story in its entirety here

What, didn't you hear? Facebook is taking over the internet.

www.google.com...

In Quiet Coup, Facebook takes over Internet

Soon every website will have to have Facebook integration if it wants to compete. FB wants to be the next web standard, instead of opening up your browser to Google, they want some form of Facebook to be your starting point and your one login for all online activities.

reply to post by serbsta


Wow, no i hadn't read that yet, thanks for the links.

In my opinion thats crazy, I dont even use FB that much and I have all the privacy features set to high (to where my page isn't viewable to anyone but people I have approved as friends)

Not to mention that I rarely use it, why would i want it to be my central hub for all my internet comings and goings?

Does anyone else find this intrusive and even a little bit ridiculous?

And what a perfect way for a company to track you every action on the internet.

reply to post by Alaskan Man


or THE Company.

reply to post by Alaskan Man


I *think* you can disallow that. Unless something has changed in the past week.

Facebook isn't the only site. Not long ago, my mother asked me if I had a trip to Australia planned - she said that every time she accessed her Yahoo email account messages (from me) the ads. were connecting me to travel Australia links. Scary thing was, I had been doing some browsing in regards to that (from my laptop at my house). Bear in mind that I don't live with her and had not used her computer. WTH?






[edit on 12-5-2010 by LadySkadi]

Google does it too. It would really be nice if someone would put a stop to this, but of course our politicians are in the corporations' pockets.

reply to post by DogsDogsDogs


you're right! thank you very much, guess thats a new privacy feature that wasn't available last time i locked down my privacy information, like i said i dont use FB that much so i wasn't aware of it.

thank you for pointing that out, now i won't be bugged by FB's intrusive impulses.

shouldn't they send you some sort of e-mail to let you know this change has taken effect? if they did, i never received it.

I hope this thread can at least alert members of ATS who use FB of this recent change.

Its just very clever coding, will try and explain though maybe some one can explain it better

If you log into facebook, then you browse away from it to another site, well you will still be logged in. So if you browse back to facebook then you dont have to log in right, it just goes into your profile...

So all the coding in the website is doing is redirecting an ad to your facebook account or part of your facebook profile as your browser is still logged into your account. Nothing special here

If you logout of facebook and go back to this other website displaying your facebook info, well the facebook ad should not display your info anymore and chances are it will display something totally different

Correct me if im wrong though

To prevent facebook knowing all of the websites that you visit (and the websites accessing your facebook information), I use Internet Explorer for facebook, and Opera for general surfing.

Or you could log out before browsing.

To prevent google knowing everything you do, erase your cookies after every session. This might not work if you have a static IP.

Think thats scary? Ever heard of spokeo.com? It has everything you have ever posted to the net including pics that you have set to private on social sites, your address, your bio, phone number, what sites youve been to, what sites your a member of, its pretty crazy what youll find on yourself when you search by your name, number, or email address!

[edit on 12-5-2010 by FlightOfTheNavigator]

You are using FB and you want privacy?
I thought that people are using FB because they dont like their privacy and they want to be socialized.

People, you are funny.
Someone who uses FB and wants privacy is naive or ...

reply to post by Alaskan Man




Hello AM,
Thought you might like to see the banner across
the top of the page that you linked,

Pic-

s187.photobucket.com...

I have never seen that before,Is this something new or have i fallen
of the bleeding edge?

BV.




[edit on 12-5-2010 by BlackViolet]

reply to post by Zmurfix


What's more annoying is wanting your privacy and disliking sites like facebook ...yet people you know are putting up photo's of yourself with your name,some details etc without permission for anyone to see. I was told i was being egotistical and over dramatic, but i personally don't feel comfortable with that yet powerless to do anything. Maybe im just toooo paranoid.

reply to post by FlightOfTheNavigator


All the info was wrong.

Yeah I had the same experience fellow Alaskan It's incredibly irritating, especially with pics of my daughter and the like being potentially available to anyone.

I went through all my settings fairly heavily and locked out as much content as I can, but from what I've gathered they are still within their rights (as defined by their T&C) to sell their user registries in bulk to interested, paying parties.

Between that, simple cookies, and a large portion of user ignorance, I wonder how many people are bombarded with Facebook solicited junk, or worse yet, have had ID issues that could have started from it.

It makes me use my FB less that's for sure. I really should just stop using it but it's almost a 'damage is done' type scenario, as even if I stop now, anything there is already in their hands.

I went to the photobucket site and got this.

Welcome from abovetopsecret.com, upload your images & videos for free at Photobucket! Join Now

windows explore records every program you install every web site you visit. and take picture of the screen and records the keys you press. and so do a lot of other programs. windows puts a “hook” on every thing it can. and yes it is call a hook! is you use good fire wall software and turn off all the pr’input fire walls the it allows. you will see it. comodo free fire wall. ( but clear the stored list). spyshelter ( but clear the stored list). and you will see it...
see for your self...

You're referring to a spy/malware software, correct? If you're referring to Windows Explorer you'd have to be more specific as to what file is being released. That violates certain T&C that Microsoft has been forced to adopt. Of course that means that they only have to abide by the intent of the law, there's always loopholes after all.

That much said a Firewall can only do so much if you don't know what exactly what you need to set for rules. Could you be more specific as to what input and output rules you are using? Also do you have any logs proving the output of the files? I'd be very interested in comparing yours to ones I'll start pulling to see if there's an actual link.

The reality is that a lot of what people see from FB-aimed advertising is accomplished through simple cookies. Even if you set your cookies to delete at every restart of browser as long as you're still browsing using the same instance the cookies continue to do their job. If you set to ignore all of their cookies then you end up with FB not functioning properly, which may or may not be a big loss since their servers are so overloaded anyways.

Most of this is basic, basic stuff. Even FB soliciting your information is fairly normal for webpages and businesses, they've been doing that for far longer than FB's been around. The larger concern is the scale in which they can potentially work with and release data.