As readers know, I am no fan of social networking sites. I'm especially un-fond of Facebook, which was founded by the CIA's In-Q-Tel subsidiary.
Nevertheless, I just received a perplexing Facebook invite. Perhaps someone out there can help me to understand this enigma.
Someone whom I will here call "Jane Codfish" sent me the invitation. I don't know her. Never heard of her. Her public page reveals that she is Australian with an interest in left-wing politics. Jane is not mysterious in and of herself. But the invite also contains the words "See who else has invited you to Facebook," followed by six names and images (or avatars) -- and this is where the oddness begins.
One of those people is somewhat known to me on a personal level. Call her Elvira. She once took care of my dog for a while. She has never invited me to join Facebook (she respects my suspicions, even though she does not share them) and she has never written to me using her Gmail account, the only email account of hers that Facebook should know about. Her rare online writings do not reference me in any way.
Another of the six is Prissy Patriot, a no-longer-operational blogger who, like me, looked into the rumor that Dick Cheney was a client of Deborah Jeane Palfrey's. If I recall correctly, PP and I both interviewed Palfrey. I don't recall ever corresponding with Prissy Patriot.
The other four "invites" came from four people unknown to me. I can discover no connection whatsoever.
How could Facebook have divined the direct personal connection between Elvira and myself, even though that link has left no cyber-trail? And how could Facebook have known that Prissy Patriot and I were linked only in our shared pursuit of the Dick Cheney rumor?
Can Facebook read minds? Or does Facebook simply read a whole bunch of private email, using data mining software to knit together evanescent connections? Does this very post fit into some eldritch Facebook scheme? There is something really, really, really weird going on here...
24 comments:
HEY KIDS, GET OFF THE LAWN!!!
[You're acting like a paranoid old man, I think. People, the individuals whose names are on the invites, invite you, the system doesn't. If you want to know why they invited you, call them. What the system does is called something else, not an invite, and it's based on who all your friends know (if enough of them know the same person, you probably know him/her, too).]
if you let it, Facebook will send this out to ALL your email contacts ... to be linked to the Facebook world, all you need is some one else who is and has your email
First answer: Do you have a FB account? Because if you do, and your email is in someone else's uploaded email list, and that someone also has that stranger in her list, FB has an annoying habit of "suggesting" friends to you merely because you have a mutual friend. They don't know you don't know this person. And some people, in some insane quest to rack up as many "friends" as they can, will ask to friend you. Happens to me a lot. I just ignore them.
Second answer: I believe FB suggests "friends" who don't have FB accounts but are listed in the mutual friend's FB address book. This may be what is happening with you.
I'm a long time reader, but don't think I've ever commented before...
I have to agree that this Facebook stuff is pretty fishy. I didn't think much about the several invites I've gotten, until I read your post above. Then I realized that I've gotten invites from someone I'm only linked to via University. In other words, I went to graduate school and studied the same thing they are studying now, although they are in an entirely different graduate school. What's more, I've never met them, corresponded with them, or even share the same sub-disciplinary interests.
I thought that in my case Facebook harvested some addresses from emails that she might have received from academic sources, which might have had my email on it in a huge list of other emails. But I really don't know. And I'm too suspicious of Facebook to log into it to find out.
My husband is not as suspicious and is on Facebook. He too 'invited' me to join, although he knows my feelings about it. The invite went to a misspelled version of my name which was also used in the invitation from the academic I don't know. This is a common misspelling of my name and seems to be linked to my email address in Facebook now.
Heh, I'm making myself dizzy trying to explain. My point is, Facebook doesn't have my real name, but it has some name it gleaned via sifting through the 'net or email. Facebook has linked me, via my broad academic discipline, to someone I don't know. The pressure to join Facebook has been pretty high from my friends, relatives and workmates. I think I'll keep resisting.
Sima
I think they do a lot of sophisticated data mining. I have never invited them into my gmail account, but they still suggest friends from my email whom I corresponded with from Craig's List ads. Also, if your friend has an alternate email listed on her gmail account, and has invited Face Book into her gmail, they may have taken that as permission to examine the other account as well.
Michael, you don't understand. I've talked this over at some length with "Elvira." She's as bothered as I am. She never invited me, and never wrote to me using her Gmail account.
The only possibility that comes to mind is that Facebook traced a message she wrote to herself at another email address. And then Facebook somehow got hold of all of THOSE email addresses.
That, I should think, is illegal.
And isn't it illegal for Facebook to have access to all of the addresses in her Gmail account?
Oh, and bluelyon: Under no circumstances would I ever have a FB account.
I set up an account against my better instincts and basically dont use it but I was surprised when it suggested I might want to be friends with-a friend. I guess he uploaded his email account. I have no idea who most of the other people are who they suggest I might want to be friends with though.
It sounds like this has the makings for a great mystery/conspiracy novel.
Joseph,
When you take surveys or quizzes at Face Book, they tell you that to get the best answer they have to access all the information about you. I've since realized that means they go into your email, because they suggest as friends people who have responded to job ads I've posted or merchandise that I have wanted to purchase. These are people that I have no relationship with whatsoever. So, you definitely give them permission when you take quizzes and such - staples of Face Book life. They also suggest that you let them look through your email so they can find all of your friends, but I've never agreed to that.
Joe I had a revelation with LinkedIn that might shine some light on your query-- when on linkedin you want to add people to your connections, you can mine your email accounts (just like FB...) but I would always see a few names that i didn't know and was certain that i had never emailed.
Now, i know this part of the story will annoy you but-- wanting to know who these people were, i went to my gmail, and searched them. And lo and behold, someone i did know CC'd both of us on an email.
That was the sum total connection.
I have suspected that this will work with two people who have been BCCd together as well...
There is no way that FB does not have this function built-in. A facebooker volunteers their email address as a way to invite all their friends. Once InQFB is in, do you think they're going to only stay for that one session?
And its obvious that they have a program that says friends have invited you (i get them all the time too, and from people who know my similar disdain for fb). So, putting two and two together it would just make sense that if you and Elvira Codfish were ever CCd together, or even BCCd, then you're in their sights....
I just wish someone would find a way to end NAYMES once and for all. I have never signed up for them, and will never. I don't knwo what spider found my name and what asshole CTO thought that a spider is how they should start accounts and then they will come... if i ever meet that guy i will kick out all his teeth. Whats worse, their SEO is so top notch that it usually shows up in google searches BEFORE my own website.
lori, I've never done the quiz thing. Not on Facebook, not anywhere else.
I went over the privacy statement offered by Facebook. Nowhere does it say that Facebook has the right to access all the names and addresses in your Gmail or other email account.
Seems to me that if they can see those addresses they can also see all of the messages.
That's GOTTA be against the law!
What pisses me off is that everyone is simply taking this. A mere five years ago, there would have been outrage. But now we've been conditioned. "Oh. So they can read all of my private email. Big deal."
The apathy is infuriating.
Y'know what else? It's impossible to call or contact Facebook to ask questions about all of this.
Over the past month, I've been getting emails from FB (which I've never had anything to do with), which I've never opened because my ISP says they've been quarantined for viruses.
—g.
-g, There is a currently a scam email circulating that claims to be from facebook, but contains a link to a site that does "drive by" downloads (downloads various nasty things onto your computer without your knowledge or interaction, and installs them). This could be what is being flagged by your ISP. I get them here at work. They are not (most likely) from Facebook at all.
"(D)oes Facebook simply read a whole bunch of private email, using data mining software to knit together evanescent connections?"
Yes. There is no such thing as privacy on the internet.
Joe,
I know you don't have a FaceBook account. Your friend does and when your friend takes a quiz, she agrees to this:
"Allowing "WHAT ARE YOU BORN TO DO?" access will let it access your Profile information, photos, your friends' info and other content that it requires to work."
I suspect that if your friend has an emergency email address listed on their primary email account, that Facebook may access that account as well. I think the access the above statement allows is pretty wide ranging. Until someone objects, I don't think it'll stop either.
Be careful, Joe.
I had a strange worried moment yesterday that the Palfrey crazyness might come back into your life. I have this bad feeling this is about that more than it is about FB or its malfeasance.
Once you sign up with Facebook, they try to get you to 'find friends' by searching through your email. You must supply them with your email addy and password and they 'import your friends' information.' They claim they will not store your password. As if the damage isn't already done at that point.
They will also import your AIM Buddy list and Windows Live contacts, as well as look up co-workers associated with the places of employment you mention AND current or past college/high school classmates.
All it takes is for one fool you've associated with at some point in your life to spill all their info to Facebook and then they've pretty much got YOUR info.
Anne -- I must register a strong NO. I'm not going to allow that axiom "There is no privacy on the internet" to justify shrugging my shoulders and allowing Facebook access to private email. It's against the law and we should be angry about it.
-> axiom;
when a geo of ibm, for example-
says something like this, he is spilling the beans.
He is probably selling something, not necesarily to You.
So he speaks out,what he KNOWS what
is possible in technical terms.
In cyberland the means of production are scientific.
They obey to natural laws.
There is no such thing as privacy
in maths.
As to the contrary, the mode of production over the course of human history has evolved into
(sorry) capitalism, which is neither social, nor logic.
So what we see is, each time that
that contradiction materialises,
seems to be against a "law" that we want to keep up.
The law of privacy was good for the
bourgeois against the aristocrats and
-but by the way, emancipated the proletarians, who were only just being put in existence,etc-
-and now privacy is sold as a privilege.
Information is informal.
There is one list here, that are the members.
There is the other, smaller list,
which are the out-opters.
The net is not to catch "universal adversary" - it is to filter out
the emerging humanity.
-i'd rather stop here.Tried to be positive.
Facebook's definition for "Friends" doesn't seem to match social reatity. In some respects it appears to present a delusional meaning much more than reality. Maybe for those people who long for "friendships" it may present an answer. However it's important to recognize who started this in the first place then second recognize what's going on within our country as well. Remember we're in the midst of a White House Coup where the Big Banks and CIA are involved!
I've had many experiences with Facebook. Some seem to coordinate with what other experiences I've had with respect to criminal activities around me. As a society we severely lack good discernment with knowing what is right from wrong and have become gawkers to the extreme. This is well fed by MSM and seems to have been developed by them as well. I feel our gawking problems and "dumbing-down" go together maybe there is something to think about here.
If you spend any time reading through the posts to articles over time you may notice similarities. Some of this seems to come with hired posters trying to create misinformation yet many read and believe them. Remember that posting on the internet to articles is also a social activity!
Same exists on Facebook along with a collection least important personal information who came my way through the "suggested" friends list. As our knowledge grows with what is happening to us, our interests for important information hopefully with grow as well. How much can any one person read in a day anyway?
There is more but I'm not allowed to talk about it at this time. I believe FB will surface eventually to show us what they were really tring to accomplish.
Marty Didier
Northbrook, IL
Another aspect - look how the concept of "friend" is being changed into what's practically a police term. "Who are this guy's main associates?"
Gotta wonder, with these FB kids, how many of their "friends" have they "added" themselves, and how many have been "added" for them?
Do they know? Do they even care?
Me, I'd never have a Gmail account, and trust Google about as little as I trust Facebook. Most of the people I email with aren't on Facebook. Well OK, I haven't asked most of them, but I should imagine that few of them are. As for receiving FB invites, the only person I've ever received those from has been my landlord - and if he thinks I'm his friend, well what an idiot he must be. I ended up using my mail client to block emails from FB.
Whether this a-hole knows the invites are being sent to me, is another question. I'm not going to ask him what the answer is. Maybe the idiot's MySchmuckMail program sends his entire address list to FB. Maybe a routine gets run to decide who his friends are, on his behalf. As a landlord, he shouldn't have any friends anyway - but the world ain't a fair place.
At least I can see the funny side when I get these pleas to be his friend on Facebook.
"Friend" seems less and less about intersubjectivity and more and more about following the pack, lugging corporate-determined attitudes and opinions around in what passes for your mind.
A similar point could be made about the big forum websites where people give and get "reputation" points.
It's less expensive than many people think to get a domain, run a mailserver on it, and run a proper mail client on your own PC. That's what I do, and I've been semi-homeless or worse for 3 years...
Last point - Microsoft's in the loop here too. I don't use Windows Live or Outlook, and I doubt there is an easy button-clicky way for me to "allow" FB or any other firm "into" my address book or mail file. ('Course, I may be wrong on that!)
b
Joe,
I'd like to address your concern that facebook is breaking the law via 'reading' email. The e-mail invite you received was from person A, in the content of the e-mail there are 6 friends of person A. These six friends are NOT co-inviting you. They are a short list of person A's friends. Given your passions etc does it surprise you that you may have common friends? I think this is a way to convince people to join, and avoid legalities. Not a blunt force grab, but a subtle con for one to give info away freely.
I primarily use FB for group things, bike races, parties concerts etc. Kinda like evite, but with broader stuff to view.
Purenoiz
Purenoiz... Thanks, but "Elvira" has nothing to do with the person who sent me the invite. I should have made that clear. They are not friends.
Furthermore, Daniel Hopsicker tells me that when he signed up for Facebook, invites from him went out to everyone in his Gmail account (including me) -- even though he authorized no such thing!
http://www.channel3000.com/technology/21569629/detail.html
check out this article printed today Nov. 11th.
Some Facebook Applications Pose Privacy Risk
Online Quizzes Can Access More Information In Users' Profiles
Madison ACLU is involved.
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