

Tell HN: The problem with BangWithFriends - it's not anonymous - nischalshetty

Facebook Graph search allows you to search everyone who uses this app. Be it your friends, people who aren't your friends, just about anyone.<p>Example criteria:<p>"Single women I am not friends with who use BangWithFriends"<p>"My friends who use BangWithFriends"
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bluetidepro
This is an interesting find. I don't necessarily care about "BangWithFriends",
but I am curious if you still show up on those searches if you set the privacy
to "Only me" when you signup in any app. Does that hide you from searches on
the Open Graph (in respect to app usage)?

I ask this because I frequently signup with Facebook on some apps, and
purposely put it to "Only me" privacy, to keep my activity hidden from my
Facebook friends. I would hope that doing so, would keep me out of those types
of Open Graph searches. Can anyone confirm/deny this ( _I don't have Open
Graph Search, yet_ )?

~~~
rakeshpulipati
By changing the app privacy to "Only me" it doesn't appear in Open Graph
searches

~~~
nischalshetty
Now the app developers have to see if they can have that as the default
privacy setting for anyone who uses the app and this should be truly private
info after that.

~~~
bluetidepro
You can set that default. See screenshot from
<https://developers.facebook.com/apps/[APP_ID]/permissions>:
<http://bluetide.pro/k6sP/2HAHipbX> \- Just change "Default Activity Privacy"
to "Only me".

More info:
[https://developers.facebook.com/docs/guides/appcenter/#autho...](https://developers.facebook.com/docs/guides/appcenter/#authorization)

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colkassad
Ask HN: What is BangWithFriends?

Edit: a Facebook app that where you can click on friends you want to sleep
with. If they have the app, they are notified. I would think this would be
more cool if both of you are only notified if you both signify that you want
to sleep with each other. This could also be toned down to just signify
romantic interest to get more engagement.

~~~
fatbird
The fatal flaw in the model is "I'm going to click on all my friends to see
who signals interest in me".

~~~
blacksqr
That's not the fatal flaw. The fatal flaw is that all the men in a social
circle will click on every friend to see who signals interest. All the women
will click on the same one or two individuals. In other words, the fatal flaw
is that it will simply replicate the dynamics and frustrations of high school.

~~~
theorique
Yes, it gets tiring servicing so many fine ladies

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gozmike
This may also work, and won't require graph search:

[https://www.facebook.com/browse/friends_using_app/?app_id=17...](https://www.facebook.com/browse/friends_using_app/?app_id=178205172320915)

Replace the app_id with the id of any facebook app you want to use.

~~~
paganel
Nice find, it actually works for me too.

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king_jester
> "Single women I am not friends with who use BangWithFriends"

If I understand the current user base of BangWithFriends, this will return no
results.

~~~
DigitalJack
You are wise beyond your years.

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ovoxo
Interesting. Here's another problem I just discovered:

"Men who live in Toronto, Ontario and who use BangWithFriends" - 65

"Females who live in Toronto, Ontario and who use BangWithFriends" - 6

~~~
alanctgardner2
Well, you have to do some refractory period math, but it's doable. The bigger
problem is trying to partition the graph so everyone is willing to sleep with
everyone in their partition, and the partitions are evenly sized. I'm willing
to bet this is an NP-hard problem.

~~~
meta
Reminds me of Stable Matching[1] but the groups aren't the same size. I guess
if we can relax the "opposite sex" requirement then we reduce the problem to a
Stable Roommates Problem[2] ;)

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stable_matching> [2]
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stable_roommates_problem>

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davidu
That's not the real problem with BangWithFriends.

That's just a symptom or side-effect of the real problem.

As the idiom goes, if you lie down with dogs, you will get up with fleas.

~~~
jessaustin
True, but doesn't this apply to Facebook in general? The graph search
functionality wasn't created by BwF. It's been clear since the beginning of
Facebook that they are eager to reshare any info you share with them.

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knes
For people who don't have access to Graph searches yet. Just do a
BangWithFriends search in app and you will see something like "xxx, xxx, and
xx Other friends are using this app." under the app description. It will
return the same list at the Graph search.

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guruz
I don't see the problem here.

You can't find out who wants to bang who, right?

You only can find out that people want to bang. Which is true since the big
bang 13.8 billion years ago. (well, humans evolved later, i know)

~~~
colkassad
I don't see a problem if you are single and don't care what potential
employers think. And sure, if you aren't single then you shouldn't have the
app installed in the first place (preempting this argument). But it still
makes Facebook more of a landmine for less scrupulous users and they do make
up a significant part of the population.

~~~
bobsy
Does the Graph API allow you to find all app's being used by a specific
person?

This topic keeps coming up. If you can see all app's installed by someone then
you might have the point.

If you can't then an employer would need to search for this specific app and
find your account. I guess it is possible that some employers may have a
blacklist of hundreds of app's but I would have thought it would be more
trouble to maintain compared to the value of having it. Especially considering
how tomorrow I could launch "BangWithBuddies" and this app would need to be
found, flagged as not appropriate for employees and added to a search list.

If an employer is going to this much trouble to scan for what they believe is
moral correctness then they probably aren't worth working for.

~~~
mikeevans
Looks like indeed, you can! Use the graph search for "Apps that _user_ uses",
or it looks like you might be able to use this url (might have to have graph
search access) <https://www.facebook.com/search/**userid**/apps-used>

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tgrass
"My friends who have searched 'My friends who use BangWithFriends'"

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speik
I have graph search. Tried this, got four results, all male.

So yes, this seems to be true.

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vy8vWJlco
Those crazy kids with their crazy ideas about how to love each other. Good for
them.

I can imagine Version 2.0 being even more general (a craigslist of discreet
hypothetical matching) for more than just sexual arrangements. But continuing
the sexual theme, obviously the next logical step is N-way group hookups.

It occurs to me that something similar could also be implemented in a
distributed manner (for use offline or with decentralized P2P networks,
etc...) using asymmetric encryption and split keys.

~~~
untog
Only on HN would sex involve asymmetric encryption and split keys.

I kid, but I'd wait to see if this 'crazy idea' is successful (top tip: it
won't be) before planning the second iteration.

~~~
TillE
> (top tip: it won't be)

You seriously think so? Casual sex has been a major use of Facebook for quite
a long time. This particular approach may not catch on, but I guarantee you
that some variation of this idea eventually will work.

~~~
untog
I don't think casual sex has been a major use of Facebook for a while-
certainly during it's college-only days that could have been the case, but
less so in a more social network aware world.

I think something like BangWithFriends is doomed to fail simply because of the
visibility. People can see if you use the app, which would embarrass many. And
like almost every single online dating/sexual site out there, the number of
men dramatically outnumbers the number of women.

------
nischalshetty
This app is interesting however, users are signing up for this with the idea
that no one among their friends get to know about it. Unfortunately, facebook
enthusiastically shows everyone using various apps.

Not sure if facebook has a privacy setting to prevent others from knowing the
apps I use but if they do then the developers of this app should inform this
to their users.

If facebook does not have a way for me to hide from my friends the apps I use
then IMO, facebook should have this option.

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awwstn2
And then there's this search, which returns lots of results:
[http://f.cl.ly/items/1D3u380L3z3R2E0v101H/Married%20people%2...](http://f.cl.ly/items/1D3u380L3z3R2E0v101H/Married%20people%20who%20use%20BangWithFriends.jpg)

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tomasien
No one I'm friends with is using it! That's so disappointing.

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kremdela
Great find. I had a similar issue with a dumb app I built a long time ago that
was more of a learning experiment / sick joke than anything real.

It was called Rubbed Out and the point was to list all of your friends you had
thought about while masterbating.

With bad permissions, or a small sample size, it gets really scary.

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gailees
The problem with BangWithFriends is that there are no females on there that
are down to bang. Every person I've ever seen login has a multitude of male
friends "using this app" and little to no female friends using it.

This kind of app is completely fucked from the start bc of the gender
disparity.

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bongs
I agree, it is not anonymous.

We created a version that is more suitable for Facebook - for people looking
for serious relationships instead of casual encounters.

<http://www.PairBuddy.com>

We have got some good support in our beta launch.

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CrazyGee
I have just tried to join <http://www.BangFriends.com> but it says i will
receive an email shortly because they are still in BETA mode. Maybe they are
adding the default privacy option so people cant monitor you on facebook via
Open Graph?

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pablosanchez
This was exactly the same problem when AirTime tried to use the Chat Roulette
concept to create an app "to meet new people on your social graph".

Using FB connect killed all the fun in that. You can tell by the disclaimer
they're now using on their landing page.

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gizmo686
I wonder what it would take to implement BangWithFriends with cryptographicly
assured privacy.

When I have the chance, I'll break open my crypto book and see if this problem
is less impossible to solve than it seems.

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jgv
lol yea thats the only problem with this app..

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jnxfgf455
Disgusting.

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largesse
Obviously, the answer is to have everyone sign up for BangWithFriends. Then
anonymity is assured.

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youssefsarhan
Also, [http://blog.sefsar.com/post/42926069438/bangwithfriends-
is-n...](http://blog.sefsar.com/post/42926069438/bangwithfriends-is-not-
anonymous-at-all-the-one)

