
That Facebook app is not your friend - abennett
http://www.itworld.com/tech-amp-society/102423/that-facebook-app-not-your-friend
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yalurker
Am I the only one who found the most troubling item in the article that the
middle school is handing out 3 day suspensions for "even a minor social
network offense".

How is that even allowed? If I were a parent with a child at that school I'd
be joining the PTA and campaigning to have whoever implemented that policy
fired. Schools shouldn't be trying to police what their students say or do
while at home.

We have laws for threats & libel, let's have our schools handle education and
let our judicial system handle legitimate complaints if there are threats of
violence or whatever.

~~~
epochwolf
These policies are quite typical. Schools often punish students for the things
they do outside of school.

~~~
philwelch
It's even constitutional sometimes:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morse_v._Frederick>

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dabent
My daughter had "Lover of the Day" installed, which named her uncle as her
Lover of the Day, which was simultaneously hilarious and really, really
creepy. I had her uninstall the app about 5 minutes after I saw what happened.

~~~
pavel_lishin
Only tangentially related, but my friend saw a shirt that said "Uncle With
Benefits" for sale somewhere.

That's another one of those things that are hilarious in principle, but you
never really want to be caught in.

~~~
jseifer
That's from T-Shirt Hell: <http://www.tshirthell.com/funny-shirts/uncle-with-
benefits>

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megamark16
I make it a point not to install any facebook apps. I don't need them, or want
the extra functionality that they provide, and I don't want my info being
shared with an outside app. I use facebook so my family members know what's
going on with myself and my wife and kids, and to keep in touch with old
friends.

~~~
kevingadd
Maybe you didn't read the linked article - it points out that applications
installed by _other people_ can access a lot of your data directly without
your permission, because you shared it with those people and they installed
the app. I personally didn't realize how much information it supported sharing
automatically, so I just went to FB and found the control panel and turned
most of that off.

~~~
megamark16
Yes, I did read the article, and what I meant was that I don't install any of
those apps both to protect myself and all of my friends. I agree with you that
it is pretty scary how much info is being shared automatically.

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kungfooey
The sad thing is that while _we_ all know this (especially if you've spent any
time writing Facebook apps), it's our parents generation and our kids that
apparently do not. I'm saying that hoping to encourage us all to do a little
user-education whenever possible. This link doesn't do much good on HN. Share
it with your non-techie friends.

(Side note: I wonder if you could create a Facebook app with the sole purpose
of creeping out people with the amount of information they provide?)

~~~
kasterma
Has been done:

<http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=114232425072>

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dbz
Yes, I agree Facebook Apps are often not your friends, but because they sell
the data they mine off of you to spammers and the like.

This example is awful. That teacher is unprofessional, imho, if she was even
friending her students. At all schools I have been to- It is against the rules
for teachers to contact students for reasons other than school work related
issues. No playing Xbox live with my awesome Art Teacher =/. But if I were
that teacher, I would accept full responsibility for (1) Joining a Social
Network and not knowing what I was getting into, and (2) Becoming friends with
the people I teach and the consequences that follow

~~~
xiaoma
It's really saddening to see those views. The last thing students or children
need is cold robot-like "professional" interaction. Connecting on a human
level is one of the most important ways a teacher provides value beyond that
of a book or video series. I've had good friendships with 2 of my former
teachers, and my life is better for it.

~~~
dbz
I guess I should have said she was unprofessional if she acted upon that lover
of the day thing. I have great friendships with a lot of my old facebook
teachers and I am facebook friends with some of them. They are truly good
professional people. I just don't think _that_ person is professional because
she can't handle a social network, yet chooses to participate in the fray.

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dantynan
nice discussion. thanx for sharing my blog post here.

a few points of clarification. the teacher in question is a substitute
teacher. not on staff. she's also the mother of a student there (pretty common
at this school -- it's a charter school, earthier and crunchier than most).

the 3-day suspension rule is a bit extreme, I agree. but schools are very
concerned about bullying and harassment online, so they're taking a hard
stance. I can see why. there was another incident at this very school where
one student started a facebook group with the title "XXX XXX is gay"
(substitute a 7th grader's name for XXX XXX). he did it as a joke, but he got
a 3-day suspension for it.

it's a real problem, and there aren't any easy solutions. saying "don't use
facebook" isn't gonna work. the kids will use it, regardless. and at that age
they really don't understand the implications.

cheers,

dt

~~~
ytinas
This is ridiculous. Once the children are off school property they no longer
have a teacher/child relationship. The teacher is a citizen at that point and
should have the same recourse as a citizen (e.g. alert the police if a fight
is going to take place off school property). Suspending children for something
they do on social networks on their own time? These teachers should lose their
teaching licenses.

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rarrrrrr
TLDR; Anytime one of your friends uses an app with default settings, it has
access _your_ information. To disable, Facebook -> Account -> Privacy Settings
-> Applications and Website, uncheck everything. Even then apps can still
access basic info like your name and location.

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Eddk
lesson learned? don't put important private info on social networks.

~~~
kevingadd
Like your name? Because that's all this app needed to cause a problem.

~~~
gloob
I know this is very much a minority opinion, and I suspect your question was
rhetorical, but my answer would be "yes". Actually, my answer would be "I
don't use social networks," but that's rather beside the point.

You know what they say about two people and keeping secrets. It just happens
to be a lot tougher to correct your mistake when one of the "people" (the
database, in this case) is fully mirrored in three or four different places.
Much easier to just be cautious and not make the mistake in the first place.

