Cryptographic Tools To Keep You Hidden On Facebook 148
Posted
by
timothy
from the unless-they-don't dept.
from the unless-they-don't dept.
Al writes "Many people reveal way too much personal information on social networking sites — something that can easily lead to identity theft or unwanted attention from employers etc. Technology Review has a story about several cryptographic tools that can be used to hide your activity on Facebook, from both untrusted users and from Facebook itself. Urs Hengartner, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Waterloo, developed a Firefox plugin that obfuscates anything marked with '@@' on Facebook and only reveals the correct information to trusted users who have the right keys. The sensitive data itself is even stored on an outside server so that even Facebook cannot access it. The piece mentions two other projects, NOYB and flybynight, that also aim to make personal information more secure on Facebook."
Crytographic Tools.. (Score:1, Interesting)
The best tool: Don't use facbook?
Fake datas. (Score:4, Interesting)
Hmm, I used fake datas like names on FaceBook. Then, a few weeks later, my account got disabled. I e-mailed to ask what's up and the customer support told me that I was using a fake name/datas. They wanted proof like a driver license to get back on. Frak that. MySpace, Friendster, etc. had no problems!
Re:I'm sorry, but maybe I'm missing the point... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I'm sorry, but maybe I'm missing the point... (Score:1, Interesting)
I actually liked most of the summary but the last bit. I think it would be quite cool to post encrypted messages on facebook. Prepend them with some kind of header. Write a Firefox Extension that recognizes this header, runs that through pgp and presents you the clear text.
Actually it would be even more cool if HTML had a tag to mark encrypted text. Either you have the correct key and see the text, or you don't and see some placeholder.
No third parties involved at all. I think that would be really awesome. Sure if you post something on the internet you can't expect it to be totally secret. Someone could crack your encryption. But I think it would be a neat feature combined with all this social networking. Additionally it could spread the use of PGP.
Re:I'm sorry, but maybe I'm missing the point... (Score:4, Interesting)
I have a hammer. It's a nice hammer. I use it to bash things. Nails, sheet metal, inanimate objects that make me angry, etc.
I have a screwdriver, it's a nice screwdriver. I use it to loosen or tighten screws. It also makes a decent primitive prybar for light jobs.
I have PGP email. It's nice PGP email. I use it to send secure encrypted communications to a list of recipients that I control.
I have Facebook. It's a nice Facebook. I use it to say anything that I think my friends and the general public might want to know about my pathetic existence.
I also have Pidgin. It's a nice Pidgin and has the Encryption module. I use it if I need to say something "off the record" quickly to a trusted pal.
I would no more use my Facebook to send secure messages to my friends than I would use my hammer to loosen a screw, or my screwdriver to pound sheet metal into shape.
My point: Right tool for the right job.
Maybe I'm being pedantic or unimaginative, but I can't see a single reason why I'd want to post stuff to Facebook and have it only visible to certain people. Other people are just going to see I'm hiding something and either be honked off they are not included or try to hack it. And if I'm going be (IMHO) stupid enough to post it, there's no way in hell it's ending up as cleartext on ANY server run by ANYONE I don't personally know so I can personally go down and personally yell at them if the data ever got out.
Re:Secretly to save Facebook (Score:5, Interesting)
Some Facebookers accept any friend requests they get, no matter who it is or if they know them.
Amazingly so, in fact. A friend of mine had his shop broken into last week. He offered a reward for anyone who could ID the guy caught on CCTV, found out the guy's Facebook ID through it and successfully got himself added as the burglar's friend. He's now passed the name, photographs and location on to the police.
Re:I'm sorry, but maybe I'm missing the point... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Excellent Example! (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:I'm sorry, but maybe I'm missing the point... (Score:1, Interesting)
This is hilarious -----
""The sensitive data itself is even stored on an outside server so that even Facebook cannot access it.""
Well, then where is it stored? Another social networking data center?
Re:Excellent Example! (Score:3, Interesting)