Facebook Users Data Crawl Torrent - Scary

Sounds like a whole lot of baseless hysteria to me.

It's nothing you can't find via a search engine.
 
Some dude had a little pointless personal project (Probably to learn some aspect of a programming language.) which automated a public search and collected a bunch of publically available search results. He then thought it would be cool to stick it on the web.

Even the article mentions how useless it is.

There really is nothing to see. No hidden private data, nada.
 
Curtix2 said:
Why would someone make this torrent then - seems rather pointless based on you above stated information.
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Read the article you posted:

Bowes has stated that, though there isn't any real information aside from names and a URLs in the database, any number of contact details may be present on a user's Facebook page -- it all depends on how that user has his privacy settings set.
Click to expand...

It is really nothing you cant find on a search engine.
 
Madmann, OMG, it's Facebook! It must be some HUGE privacy invasion and personal data theft. OMG WTFBBQ!!!1211ONEONE11!!!
 
A more useful search would have been for excel files containing social security / ID numbers of people. Plenty of that around if you look hard enough.
 
Im not really worried about my name being in a phone book, so I am even less worried about this.
 
meh sounded worse than it was then - I wouldnt know as I dont use facebook.
Im too SCARED!
;)
 
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Like the article says, it all boils down to the privacy settings, some profiles have very weak privacy settings and thus more infomation can be collected from them.
 
The information is available in a public directory. The only real issue would be people who have insecure login details.
You could probably automate it to try various combinations of passwords based on birthdays or firstname lastname. Not terrible though really.

The rule always applies. Never put anything on Facebook you aren't happy with everyone knowing.
 
AntiThesis said:
The information is available in a public directory. The only real issue would be people who have insecure login details.
You could probably automate it to try various combinations of passwords based on birthdays or firstname lastname. Not terrible though really.

The rule always applies. Never put anything on Facebook you aren't happy with everyone knowing.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind that the under 16 yr olds that use the facebook system too.. not everyone is clued up on security and has visibility of implications and many use the default security levels and use really pathetic passwords.

The SA system is very strict, but in Europe - I can get a bank loan just by knowing your address and birthdate. Even without those details, I can repeatedly apply for credit on your name and screw up your credit rating in a major way.

but then, there will be more social networks coming soon.. Twatter is gaining, and now there is a new facebook ripoff with 'Security in mind' that has just been launched
 
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