How Safe Are You Facebooking....

[PMedMoe]

http://www.profilewatch.org/

Copy and paste your Facebook Profile URL and it will return a risk score for the info available on your profile.

Sure, and how much info is that other site getting on you? 

 

[2010newbie]

Possibly, but I did not provide them with any log-in info or anything of the sort - only the URL. Oh, and my banking info, but that's normal, right??

 

[PMedMoe]

But they get your profile info, no?

 

[Rheostatic]

Yeah, your public profile. The same stuff the rest of the internet can see. The benefit here is that some people might not realize how much of their profile is in the open.

This bit is interesting though:

Apparently Facebook considers your current IP address to be "public information" as well.

See that header in your Facebook notification email that looks like this?

    X-Facebook: from zuckmail ([NzYuMTY5LjIzLjU2])

That's your friend's IP address:

    % perl -MMIME::Base64 -le 'print decode_base64("NzYuMTY5LjIzLjU2")'
    76.169.23.56

 

[2010newbie]

It is surprising how much info you can get from this site too. A little hit and miss sometimes, but you can search for people by their screen name, name, and phone number. We had a meeting with someone the other day, so we searched for them here before hand and obtained their address, birthdate, photos, educational history, work history....

www.pipl.com

 

[dangerboy]

It is surprising how much info you can get from this site too. A little hit and miss sometimes, but you can search for people by their screen name, name, and phone number. We had a meeting with someone the other day, so we searched for them here before hand and obtained their address, birthdate, photos, educational history, work history....

www.pipl.com

Well I am fairly safe as I ran my info through that site and did not come up with anything.

 

[PMedMoe]

Well I am fairly safe as I ran my info through that site and did not come up with anything.

Me too.  The only thing that came up was my interests (as added on FB, not my personal ones) and the profile picture.  Nothing else.

 

[Rheostatic]

http://www.profilewatch.org/

Copy and paste your Facebook Profile URL and it will return a risk score for the info available on your profile.

Another site with a similar function: http://zesty.ca/facebook/

 

[mellian]

Sure, and how much info is that other site getting on you?

10 out of 10, woot.

 

[Greymatters]

Program-generated content, garbage in-garbage out - scored me as 3.9 but the only thing it really got was my name and what province I lived in, whooppee...

Edit: Okay this program is definately garbage.  I looked at their test example of Mark Zuckerberg, who with a score of '1.6' out of 10 gives: birthdate, birth location, employer, employment start date, schools attended, and interests.  And I got a 3.9 for name and province? oh, please...

 

[justmyalias]

10/10 here.

^ I lol'd at Greymatters comments.  Something sure doesn't add up if that's how it is.

 

[Delta26]

definitely.  i ran that, got 8.8/10. which means i guess two of the links i have are "open"


but if you are wanting to lock down your FB profile, might i suggest using SaveFace? it's a website that will run a "lockdown" script on your facebook page. so instead of having to manually go in and fiddle with the settings, it does that for you.


http://www.untangle.com/saveface

 

[wildman0101]

Just me with another dum-assed post.
to quote an old saying that goes way back.
"Loose lips sink ships" and so what you say
can and is usually is overheard.. us as a species
human and otherwise have a device (biologically
speaking) called ears... Anyone remember those
space age devices called rockets ect???? some
of them deployed eyes in the sky spy sattilites
and today they are so sophisticated they can
read the small small on your cig pack...
next time your downtown look around and you will
see lil black bulbs and inside are lil vid-cams and if
look real close they have tiny little hole's (micra-
phone pick-up... they are everywhere....
go figuire
scoty b

 

[Journeyman]

... they are everywhere....

I read something about that here

 

[wildman0101]

attenuation, interesting word
microwave-cooks from the inside out=elecromagnetic radiation.
attenuation=frequency/strenth/output/pulse
used in all commen appliances such as:
1. tv/monito/computer/mouse/vid cam.
2. fan (air curculating device), clock radio/phone/(handheld and
portable.adio controlled toys.
3. wiring(house) for all electrical apliliances said above.
4. the human body.
a. sensory devices, smell,touch,hear,see,feel.
b. body as a whole with all inputs.... extraordinary..
would you say..
scoty b

 

[wildman0101]

sorry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attenuation
Forgot to post Web.
Basically attenuation is a mean's of mesuring stuff.
In many cases, attenuation is an exponential function of the path length through the medium. In chemical spectroscopy, this is known as the Beer-Lambert law.

In engineering, attenuation is usually measured in units of decibels per unit length of medium (dB/cm, dB/km, etc) and is represented by the attenuation coefficient of the medium in question.[1]


Frequency dependent attenuation of electromagnetic radiation in standard atmosphere.Attenuation also occurs in earthquakes; when the seismic waves move farther away from the epicenter, they grow smaller as they are attenuated by the ground.
Attenuation decreases the intensity of electromagnetic radiation due to absorption or scattering of photons. Attenuation does not include the decrease in intensity due to inverse-square law geometric spreading. Therefore, calculation of the total change in intensity involves both the inverse-square law and an estimation of attenuation over the path.

The primary causes of attenuation in matter are the photoelectric effect, compton scattering and, for photon energies of above 1.022MeV,..

Basically attenuatioin through facebook is what you allow to go through your facebook
account to all the world... Your privacy on facebook is compromised... Screw their pri-
vacy settings. In all accounts on the internet your privacy is compromised. It's all a
matter of degree that you let your personal info out there.. Then again Iv'e just had a
Security message from Facebook,,Yahoo,, and a couple other websites in regards to
my account's being fished,(advertising),Hacked...Ect... so to conclude my friend's be
very careful what you put out there on the net... Believe it or not it is very easily com-
promised... As a MCSE with 4 designations in security,,, please, please be very careful
with your personell, banking, and all other stuff you put on the web/net.
anyway,,, thanks for listening and next's beer's on me. Be careful out there..
best regards,,
Scoty B
(AKA) the Brat

 

[Greymatters]

.. they are everywhere....

They are not everywhere, but video capture devices of all kinds are leaps and bounds more prevalent than they were 20 years ago.  The denser the population area, the more overt and covert cameras in the area.  Just about every modern public place has at least one camera monitoring the area (malls, streets, banks, commercial buildings, etc).  Cameras are set up by an increasing number of private businesses to monitor internal activity, external access, reception areas, and even covering garbage containers.  Every government building and crown corporation has cameras watching doors and public access areas.  Its not 'big brother', its a result of cheaper technology in a time of enhanced personal security awareness.

Mind you, this is for Canada, USA and several European countries, not every country worldwide... 

 

[Greymatters]

My name is hidden on FB., so you can't even search for me.  Is that safe enough?

It depends on what activity you are doing and who you are associated with.  If you have links to family members and friends, links to towns that you live in, links to businesses in your local area, links to high schools or universities you attended, or make any kind of post anywhere on facebook, you can be found by someone looking for you.

There are lots of tricks to turning yourself into an online ghost, but simply hiding your name on Facebook isnt enough to stop anyone determined to find you...

The question isnt 'is that safe enough'; its more a question of 'what information am I trying to hide and who is after it?'

 

[MGB]

What did you use to take your profile picture? Smartphones and some digital cameras may give away more than you'd like...

By Kate Murphy


New York Times

Posted: 08/15/2010 12:08:00 PM PDT


When Adam Savage, host of the popular science program "MythBusters," posted a picture on Twitter of his automobile parked in front of his house, he let his fans know much more than that he drove a Toyota Land Cruiser.

Embedded in the image was a geotag, a bit of data providing the longitude and latitude of where the photo was taken. Hence, he revealed exactly where he lived. And since the accompanying text was "Now it's off to work," potential thieves knew he would not be at home.

Security experts and privacy advocates have recently begun warning about the potential dangers of geotags, which are embedded in photos and videos taken with GPS-equipped smartphones and digital cameras. Because the location data is not visible to the casual viewer, the concern is that many people may not realize it is there; they could be compromising their privacy, if not their safety, when they post geotagged media online.

Savage said he knew about geotags. (He should, as host of a show popular with technology followers.) But he said he had neglected to disable the function on his iPhone before taking the picture and uploading it to Twitter.

"I guess it was a lack of concern because I'm not nearly famous enough to be stalked," he said, "and if I am, I want a raise."

Still, Savage has since turned off the geotag feature on his iPhone, and he isn't worried about the archived photo on Twitter because he has moved to a new residence... (more here http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_15759422?source=rss&nclick_check=1

 

[gwones]

Some people(and myself) tend to be very cautious when they are uploading pictures so what I do is that once the pictures are taken, either from my phone or dslr, I would convert the image files(default JPG) to PNG so it wipes out all the EXIF data.