Just had a message from one of my wife's friends, inviting me to join face book.
Strange thing #1 it was asking me not my wife.
Strange thing #2 It also had a list of "other people I might know on facebook". I recognised all but 1 of these, thought they've made a mistake here, but when I checked my address book, this person was in there, a very old genealogy contact I'd forgotten about.
So how the hell, did facebook get this info?
Have they mined my address book somehow or is all email traffic records available to them?
I find this a bit of a worry, am I paranoid, or does it worry anybody else????
Decrep,
It is the same mob who built the pyramids and are fluoridating the water supply and bombed the WTC. Don't trust them. 
Seriously though.... that is a worry - Facebook must have your email addressbook as the person who invited you cannot possibly list all the people you know who are also on Facebook.
Don't think you're crazy for having that thought decript, here's a message from someone on a different forum I visit, which I thought was maybe a coincidence until I read this thread. He posted it yesterday (Thursday).
When you add friends it allows you to do them via email contacts,Any email address not on the facebook will recieve a letter saying that you have a friend on there and please join... Nothing to worry about decrepid.
Sounds like they've mined your address book but depending on what email hosting you use, they may have access to your emails. The address book is more likely though. If you ever tried out Facebook, you may have also given them access to your address book at that point.
BTW, there is a US government agency which does actually capture, store and analyse all email traffic. Don't know how they go with VPN encrypted stuff but that probably doesn't worry them too much. But I seriously doubt Facebook would have access to that stuff. Come to think of it, I seriously hope that Facebook doesn't have access to that stuff.
BTW BTW, I've noticed that Facebook also now are mining the info posted on their site and using it to suggest groups to you that don't exist. I guess the idea is that they get you to kick start new groups that way. Gave the missus a fright when she started receiving these things. Pain in the sphincter if you ask me.
Coffee in hand and a poor wind forecast - then read on...
First up consider the internet - who and how is the vast structure being funded?
Back in the very early days - it was public but now it is big business.
There are a few very big players in the background running server farms on mind boggling scales. The owners of the OPERA browser are one, Google has mirrored the complete internet. And then there is the ability to plug into leaks and soft spots.
Security on the internet boils down to vested interests (Banks, government agencies etc). How far does your personal vested interest go?
Before going on think at how rapidly the SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encryption algorithms have grown.. 48 bit dead buried 128 bit should be dead and buried, 256 bit is common and 1056 bit on specific protocols. Basically it is what protects your data by churning it up when it leaves your PC to the destination where the reverse occurs. There is a reason - those soft spots...
What can you do with out being a total geek...?
YOUR SOFTWARE / HARDWARE
1) on the home front protect the front door (your adsl router to the internet) at a minimum set a password not the default.
2) For your LAN / PC review this it will give you an insight at the least..
(although controversial and taken over by a bigger concern it appears to still run on being impartial)
www.matousec.com/index.html
3) Optionally go for anonimity on the internet... read this...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Onion_Router
www.torproject.org/overview.html
You end up saying you have to trust someone - but do not under any circumstances sign-up for unsolicited PC protection products without at a minimum doing 15 - 30 minutes googling for 3rd party opinions...
YOUR HABITS 
or 
but willing to learn or 
ring in for allcomers...
The subject of safe habits.... ah perhaps someone else wants to run with this...
Where is that wind?
??
If they mine the address book of other people, and that person has received an email from you, or received an email with your address in it (because of forward or rely or or cc), then they will have your email address. It's then a simple process of networking all the addresses on common address lists to come up with a best fit score for people for you.
It's not hard to do, just time consuming.
Don't worry about it. Just make sure you don't go putting personal stuff up on the net.
Ok speaking as a web geek here, something you might not know is how all this happens. Put simply, when you visit a site, your computer sends the address of the last site you visited to the new site. This has been in place since the start of web browsers, as a way to easily figure out how to display the "go back" links you sometimes see.
What has started to happen recently is that this information has started to be mined by companies such as google and Facebook, as a way of figuring out who you are connected with. So let's say you visit a friend's page on facebook, then do a google search. Google will know that you just visited their page, and this information will be stored against your google profile. It doesn't take much of a leap of faith to figure out the connections that can be made. My guess is that some algorithms have just come online that can join the dots, and determine the connections between you, your friends, Facebook , Seabreeze, Gtc, the list goes on. There's a lot to be said for unplugging once in a while and seeing what sunlight feels like on the skin:-)
Not suspicious at all part
There is a "Friend finder" application.
You consent to it.
You give it your password for gmail.
It looks at people addresses in your account (both to and from).
It asks if you want to be friends with those who have accounts and asks you to invite the others to facebook.
You choose.
possibly suspicious part
It stores this for everyone
When the other end of the pairing (the person that mailed you or you mailed) logs onto facebook, it uses your email info to offer them possible contacts.
What happened in your situation seems to be that your geneology contact went through the same process, but didn't add you as a friend. Now facebook is using his email info to encourage you to invite him.
The issue, if there is one, is that other people can surrender a lot of your personal info, because it's their personal info too, without your consent...
Select to expand quotenebbian said...
Ok speaking as a web geek here, something you might not know is how all this happens. Put simply, when you visit a site, your computer sends the address of the last site you visited to the new site. This has been in place since the start of web browsers, as a way to easily figure out how to display the "go back" links you sometimes see.
What has started to happen recently is that this information has started to be mined by companies such as google and Facebook, as a way of figuring out who you are connected with. So let's say you visit a friend's page on facebook, then do a google search. Google will know that you just visited their page, and this information will be stored against your google profile. It doesn't take much of a leap of faith to figure out the connections that can be made. My guess is that some algorithms have just come online that can join the dots, and determine the connections between you, your friends, Facebook , Seabreeze, Gtc, the list goes on. There's a lot to be said for unplugging once in a while and seeing what sunlight feels like on the skin:-)
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Seabreese should be advertising me hot sucking blonde lesbian babes when i log in ;-)
How good are those 'I facebooked ya Mum' T Shirts.
Very good is the answer to that particular question me thinks.
PS How good is stamp at noticing typos...
I read his reply and still thought, what the hell is he on about, for a little second. haha
