2 bad Facebook apps in 1 week

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/27/rogue_facebook_app/

I've always been concerned about the privacy implications of Facebook and those silly 'applications' which serve nothing more than to share your marketing information with the world... Anyway, facebookers, a second bad app has come to light this week, and I suspect we'll see even more of them in the future.

Facebook is also constantly being targeted by scammers who send messages to your contact list pretending to be you, in financial trouble, begging for an urgent cash transfer. A compromised facebook account also gives away enough of your details for identity theft. In short, do not accept any facebook apps you don't really *really* want (and if you send me another crappy zombies app, I'll go nuts!)

It's just an education problem, we can talk to people and understand the consequences.
We can phone with people and have learned (hopefully) that if you don't know who is at the other side, you better keep it short and general.
We are publishing our info online with the right intentions, but we don't understand that we do that in public and others might use it for stuff it wasn't intended to.
It will take another generation before we got it.
I can find all my high school and University friends online after 40 years, but I can't track down any info on my 7 grand kids, so we're learning, lets hope it's fast enough.

Hi Cliff

Facebook, Myspace or any other site where people meet comes with their own hazards, many people leave details that would allow anybody to end up on their doorstep, they post pictures of themselves that end up being used by scammers, they provide phone numbers publicly and post their profiles on dating sites for scammers to copy, then to make matters worse, they freely provide further details to people they have just met and believe that everthing on the net is true.

Let's imagine walking down a busy city street when a person walking past gets your attention and begins talking to you, you have never met this man and certainly dont know who he is. Would you give him your bank account details or give him thousands of dollars? NO,

OK, the same man tells you that he has millions of dollars and if you will help him with it he will reward you with a substantial share, would you then give him details and money? NO again

For some reason, when you cant see the persons face and cant confirm where he is, people tend to be more likely to believe

That is what needs to stop


BTW, Bill, good to see you around

Howdy Bill.

Indeed, I think I have one app installed and every other invite gets blocked. Almmost all of them are a waste of time and then you get ones like this. Thanks for posting this Cliff.