The new Facebook API exposes the events you attend to anyone on the Internet | Hacker News Reader

The new Facebook API exposes the events you attend to anyone on the Internet

zestyping.livejournal.com

19 pointsedd11 comments

I think this is just a symptom of a greater issue. Many of us assume that when we post something on the internet (facebook) it should be private. The reality is that you are handing your information over to another entity, and you are doing so willingly. That entity has vast resources and the ability to change the terms of service and rules at will.

If you just have the mindset that anything you share on facebook will be posted on a billboard in Times Square, you can know for sure that you are getting the privacy you want.

Your security, and privacy, is based on the kindness of strangers.

> The reality is that you are handing your information over to another entity, and you are doing so willingly.

The perception is that when you gave that information over to the entity it will stick with the privacy rules you had setup at the time. In this case, Facebook's new systems are ignoring those privacy settings and making things public that were previously set to be private. At the very least, they are adding new features that give new views into your data that make your existing data public.

But there's a big difference between publishing an event page with a list of people attending, and publishing a list of events that you attended.

Not really...

In other news, that tool he made (http://zesty.ca/facebook/) is pretty neat.

Thank you. This allowed me to identify and remove an event that, while nice and quite innocent, was described in... "new age-y" language that might well put some contacts off.

I hesitated to rely on "security through obscurity" when using FB events as well as the old "fan pages", but social pressure caused me to give in on a few occasions.

Guess if and as I remain on FB, I'll avoid anything that has a public aspect to it.

isn't the point of "attending" an event on Facebook to let others know anyway?

Yes, but the others I want to let know are my friends, not some random person I don't even know

I think the real problem is that Mark Zuckerberg has the opposite belief, and thinks everything should be shared with everybody.

What I don't get is, why doesn't somebody just build an alternative to facebook which treats your data as private and not public. Then you could have the people still on facebook install an app to allow the secure-book people (or whatever) interact with their data so everybody can be friends across platforms. And maybe another app for vice-versa usage. bada bing bada boom.

That's a great idea, but the Facebook app will always be the weak point, because everything you share (to specific users) through it will still be open for Facebook to use however it sees fit.

Ultimately, I'd say this is the problem of social flatland: http://interuserface.net/2010/02/buzz-facebook-and-social-fl...

Disclaimer: That's my blog.

I like the non-flat approach to social networking. Most of my facebook friends are there because we went to high school together. It would be nice to be able to group them apart from my 10 or so current friends, so I could not snub my acquaintances but keep in touch with those who sould be kept in touch with.

oh, come on... why be shy? ;-))

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