

Anger mounts after Facebook's 'shadow profiles' leak in bug - iProject
http://www.zdnet.com/anger-mounts-after-facebooks-shadow-profiles-leak-in-bug-7000017167/

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lucifervulus
Silly Facebook... what surprises me is that people are shocked. The bug its
self is shocking but the fact Facebook is harvesting information... are people
really that surprised? I wouldnt be surprised if Facebook knows more about us
than our governments (except the american government... I doubt facebook
listens to our phone conversations :P) Data is power these days and facebook
is just going to keep on harvesting that sweet, sweet personal information.

~~~
eksith
Most people aren't tech, media or social savvy in any meaningful measure. Most
people still use their birthdays for passwords, include a phone number in a
social website if they keep pestering them for it and disregard the same
caution they would show when a stranger shows at their front door on a
friendly-looking website.

 _This will not change_

The sooner the tech savvy crowd learns to accept this, the better it is for
everyone.

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angwal
I got a mail from FB with the exact same message saying they had screwd up.
The most wtf moment of the email was when they had my contact number listed in
the email, I have never uploaded my contact number on my fb profile.

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unreal37
So you are friends with a person on Facebook, and this bug allowed them to see
your private email address?

I don't see what people are so outraged by. If you're friends with someone on
Facebook, why is your email address so private? And what will these Facebook
friends DO know that they know your email address?!?

If I was snarky, I would say if you can't share your email address with a
friend, choose better friends. But I won't say that. But still. Not worth so
much outrage over.

Hey, the government is reading your emails even though they know you're an
American just in case there is evidence of some crime in there. Be angry over
that.

~~~
veidr
No, this is more like you are friends with your conservative Republican boss
on facebook, but you are also a member of an abortion rights activist group.

You've never disclosed that activity to Facebook, but they harvested your data
via one of those sleazy commercial personal information brokers and added it
to your 'shadow profile' without your knowledge.

Then one day your boss downloads his data using that feature, and he suddenly
sees that you are unreal37@abortionrights.org and your phone number there.

He then calls you to tell you that not only are you fired, but your wedding to
his daughter is canceled.

This is a truly egregious bug (although I think it is probably true that few
of the potential 6 million victims have actually had their info leak in this
way).

~~~
rubikscube
Yeah, nice false stereotyping with the contrived conservative smearing.

In reality, we all know that the left are far more intolerant than the
majority of conservatives. And they are also the ones who get in your face
with vile insults, screams, graffiti, vandalism, and any other behavior that
passes when one believes their desired ends justifies their means.

It is far more believable that a leftist would be likely to call for and
delight in the firing of someone who holds moral values. Conservatives
generally just want to be left alone, and they would not in good conscience
vindictively fire someone.

And for ends justifying the means, look no further than apologists for murders
by folks like Stalin, Lenin, and Guevara. Some actually do say that was what
was needed in order for revolution. Disgusting, but that's what they say.

~~~
lostlogin
I don't for one moment believe that 90% of Americans have one of two sets of
beliefs, is this why this is contrived? This does read like a flame, I assure
you it's not, puzzled foreigner.

~~~
rubikscube
It's contrived because his scenario of a conservative business owner firing a
liberal employee is something he made up as an example to fit into his
worldview.

In reality, the political witchhunts and thought policing are overwhelmingly
leftist behaviors.

