

View facebook friend list (hidden or not hidden) - saperduper
http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/view/4726/view-facebook-friend-list-hidden-or-not-hidden

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Groxx
Found a way to break it:

Uncheck the "Public Search Results" box in your Search settings. It's pulling
from info you make public by checking the box.

That said, that box DOES NOT imply it's making your entire friends list
public. It seems to say that only what's on the preview page is visible, but
that's entirely wrong.

~~~
filosofo
But even people who have unchecked that box show up when I make the same
request authenticated as a Facebook user.

~~~
Groxx
So, you're authenticating yourself, and searching other non-publicly-
searchable people's ID? Or you're authenticating, searching your own, and
seeing people who don't list themselves as public? Or, you're seeing people
who aren't public, but in your friends list, and you're publicly searchable?

If it's the first, then that's definitely a problem, as anyone can be a FB
user. In that case, care to post the command somewhere? This should be made
known, as it's definitely a privacy concern, and FB tends to do nothing unless
threatened.

~~~
imurray
Ouch, it is the first option; if logged into facebook it seems you can see any
old friends list (including ones you can't normally see). The "command" is
just to go to the URL in the shell command in your authenticated browser (or
to faff about with cookies if you want to use lynx/wget/curl).

FB also removed the option to completely opt out of their application API at
the same time they messed this up. Not impressed.

~~~
Groxx
Joy.

That does it, I'm off FB for good. Not for any real feelings of invasions of
my privacy, it's just because they're careless and/or practically malicious.

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jkincaid
I believe this has to do with the privacy changes last month, which made it so
that Friends Lists can no longer be hidden.

After an initial backlash, Facebook made it relatively easy to remove your
friends list from public search results, but it sounds like it isn't actually
blocking access to them — they're just harder to find.

From Facebook's blog post (
<http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=197943902130> ):

"In response to your feedback, we've improved the Friend List visibility
option described below. Now when you uncheck the "Show my friends on my
profile" option in the Friends box on your profile, your Friend List won't
appear on your profile regardless of whether people are viewing it while
logged into Facebook or logged out. This information is still publicly
available, however, and can be accessed by applications. "

~~~
imurray
This is really dishonest of Facebook. Most people will have a reasonable (but
incorrect) expectation that if a user can't see a friend list on their profile
page then Facebook will stop that user from accessing that information. Why
else would Facebook provide a tool that lets you see how your profile appears
to other people?

Facebook should properly authenticate access to the URL given in the post, and
reenable blocking all applications. That is, actually respect people's
privacy, not just patch things up to superficially look like it.

------
gaius
Oops. Rule #1 of client-server computing: _never_ trust the client. Kids these
days have forgotten what we knew in the 90s.

~~~
yan
To be fair, friend lists aren't considered very private on facebook.

~~~
ericb
Which didn't used to be true, and pretty much sucks if you're say, an Iranian
dissident.

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riffer
Thought experiment: If you had the full social graph, what would you build?

~~~
sachinag
Restriction: you can't say a Facebook competitor/clone.

~~~
judofyr
I'll build an Orkut clone then.

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snippyhollow
I think that's normal, there are no longer "hidden friend lists" since last
update.

