
… but we are all Facebook users - mistytoe
http://blog.onyxbits.de/but-we-are-all-facebook-users-715/
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pixl97
For those on cable service with long lasting IP addresses..

You don't use FB, right? But you let your friend you your wireless off his
phone, and he had the FB app and location services on. Well, FB now knows
exactly where your IP is, for a while at least.

~~~
craftyguy
No. I block all FB domains at the router, and force all dns requests to
redirect to it.

~~~
chatmasta
Doesn’t matter. As long as a single smartphone with GPS enabled roams past
your WiFi (and sees its advertised MAC address), any app on the phone can
associate the user’s GPS coordinates with your router’s MAC address. Do this
with enough users, and enough routers, and you’ve got a nearly perfect
geographical mapping of WiFi routers.

This isn’t a conspiracy; Apple and Google have been doing this sort of
triangulation for a long time, and even use it as a method of saving battery
while avoiding the GPS radio.

Any app on your phone, including the Facebook app, can see nearby WiFi
networks (maybe this is a gated permission now?). If the app has enough users
with GPS enabled, its developer can easily build a GPS/WiFi map.

~~~
craftyguy
Well what you described has absolutely nothing to do with GP's premise, and to
which I was replying:

> But you let your friend you your wireless off his phone, and he had the FB
> app and location services on. Well, FB now knows exactly where your IP is,
> for a while at least.

------
gumby
> Courtesy of every idiot who (illegally) uploaded their addressbook, with my
> contacts in it, to the service.

I know your address is PII, but seriously it's _illegal_ to upload that info
to FB? The post office does this with your snail mail info, and anybody could
pick up a discarded envelope at the dump, or see a forwarded e-mail message
with your address in it.

I am not saying that people should be blithely uploading their address books,
but is it illegal?

And, come to think of it: does google track the address graph of gmail users?
They could do this entirely with envelope information (SMTP MAIL FROM and RCPT
TO), though message headers would be a richer trove.

~~~
mistytoe
> but seriously it's illegal to upload that info to FB?

In Germany, it is.

Relevant quote from the Whatsapp TOS (Whatsapp belongs to Facebook):

> Address Book. You provide us the phone numbers of WhatsApp users and your
> other contacts in your mobile phone address book on a regular basis. You
> confirm you are authorized to provide us such numbers to allow us to provide
> our Services.

Relevant german court order:

[http://www.lareda.hessenrecht.hessen.de/lexsoft/default/hess...](http://www.lareda.hessenrecht.hessen.de/lexsoft/default/hessenrecht_lareda.html#docid:7876045)

It's a bit lengthy (and difficult!) to translate. In summary it's a child
custody case about excessive smartphone use in which the court orders the
mother, among others things (limiting smartphone usage) to get written consent
from all contacts in the child's addressbook. The issue is that in Germany,
your contact data is "copyright" be yourself. You don't have to put up with
people freely resharing your contacts and theoretically, the child could have
been "sued"(+) by anyone in the addressbook who isn't also a Whatsapp user.

(+) There is a "light version" of "sueing someone" in Germany, called
"Abmahung", which is frivously used by some law firms.

------
riotgamer
lol "illegally uploaded contacts" contacts are public knowledge. you dont want
someone to share it dont give it to that person .

~~~
jeauxlb
What's your full name, phone number, email address, and home address? Or
alternatively, how do your presumably extant friends know how to get in
contact with you, given your impenetrable policy of never sharing any contact
information?

~~~
kwhitefoot
I give this information to my friends, I do not expect them to share it with
the rest of the world. If someone who knows of me from a common friend wants
to contact me they can ask that friend to pass on their contact details to me.

