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Comments: 148 +- Hardware: Cryptographic Tools To Keep You Hidden On Facebook on Wednesday September 09, @03:00PM
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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."
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Excellent Example! (Score:5, Insightful)
Dubbed FaceCloak, the tool assures its users that sensitive data stays private, Hengartner says. "If you have a particular illness, you might want to allow only your friends to see that," he says.
or alternatively, you might keep that shit off Facebook
Re:Excellent Example! (Score:4, Funny)
This is Web 2.0. Common sense has no business here.
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Re:Excellent Example! (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Excellent Example! (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Excellent Example! (Score:5, Insightful)
I had no need for FACEBOOK either until a few months ago. A very dear friends lost her husband to a car accident. they had moved years ago but we tried to keep in touch. To disseminate information about the accident and subsequent hospital updates (he lived for about a week after the accident) etc. she decided it would be easier to post the info on FACEBOOK where all her friends could see it at once rather than fielding umpteen calls an hour. I created an account and was able to follow the status as well as provide long distance support via posts to her wall. What I also found was that there were lots more friends I had lost touch with long ago I was able to reconnect with. Several of which have renewed friendships and communicate via FACEBOOK daily even though there is little chance we will get to see each other any time in the near future.
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Re:Excellent Example! (Score:5, Funny)
This is slashdot, which runs on pure elitism. You say there are real reasons to use facebook?
HERETIC! BURN HIM!
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Re:Excellent Example! (Score:4, Informative)
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Why are you YELLING at us every time you say FACEBOOK? ;)
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He is so excited about FACEBOOK that he can't control it.
Re:Excellent Example! (Score:5, Insightful)
I really don't know why this concept is so hard for people. My mother told me once when I was very young something very simple. "If you don't want someone to read it don't write it down." was what she said.
You know she was right. Its completely fool prof, nobody can find your not so well hidden diary, nobody can guess your cipher key that is weaker than you imagined, nobody can crack you later found to be flawed cipher, nobody can reproduce it in the clear accidentally or otherwise.
If its truly private it does not belong on the Network at all Facebook or anyplace else encrypted or not.
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I'm sorry, but maybe I'm missing the point... (Score:5, Insightful)
If I don't want something on Facebook, I don't put it on Facebook. There! Problem solved!
Why do I need a tool to encrypt data so only selected people on Facebook can see it? Isn't that what PGP email is for? So I can send out information to specific people and (in theory) only those people can see it?
And, additionally, if I don't trust Facebook with a bit of information, what in the hell makes you think that I'd trust a completely unknown third party who is building specific plugins so they can collect things I don't want on Facebook on THEIR SERVERS?
Sounds to me like someone is saying "post all your blackmail-worthy thoughts here. I'll keep 'em safe! Trust me!" in their best used car salesman voice.
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Re:I'm sorry, but maybe I'm missing the point... (Score:4, Funny)
Or "encrypting" a billboard using those 60's-looking inkblot things that can only be seen using special polarized/colored "decoder glasses".
People know there's a message there, they know you're trying to hide it, so why bother all your "semi"-friends with tons of postings like:
@@rA3wrAw#FraW3rar3awra3WFaW#fFRAw3WF3Aw#F#:aw#:Rfa
Which, before decoding, can be read as
@@NANNER NANNER NANNER YOU CAN'T READ THIS BECAUSE YOU'RE ONLY A DEMI-FRIEND NOT A REAL FRIEND. TRY TO DECODE THIS ASSHAT! OR FIND THE SERVER IT'S COMING FROM AND HACK THEM FOR SERIOUS BLACKMAIL FUN AND PROFIT! :)
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"Does anyone make billboard covers?"
YES! And, for a limited time only, for $19.95 plus S&H, we will ship you, not one, BUT TWO! billboard covers! Act now, pick up the phone and call 1-800-SUC-KERS! Credit card customers get this ADDED PREMIUM OFFER - - - yada yada yada.
Actually, I think you can get anything you can imagine if you watch enough late-night television.
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If I don't want something on Facebook, I don't put it on Facebook. There! Problem solved!
No, you can not predict what information may put you in trouble in the future. Something that looks harmless at present may bite you in the ass in the future (e.g. during job search etc.). So, if you have encrypted your posts right from the beginning, then you don't have to worry about the future.
Re:I'm sorry, but maybe I'm missing the point... (Score:5, Insightful)
OK, fair enough. But that means I'd have had to think ahead enough to know what might possibly be incriminating down the road. Because if I encrypt EVERYHING, then I have to give EVERYONE I want to be able to read it a decryption key, which means those decryption keys are going to be about as secure as a "don't steal this" sticker on a bicycle.
Facebook already has a "hide information" where you can select who sees what. If you don't trust Facebook, you're probably better off putting nothing at all there. Putting encrypted data there only means it's obvious you are hiding something.
Plus, you're still posting the data unencrypted to a central server, just not one owned by Facebook. Do you trust THEM?
Someone, other than you, is in control of that data. If you think it could be incriminating, perhaps you should think twice about posting it.
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Re:I'm sorry, but maybe I'm missing the point... (Score:5, Informative)
"A false sense of security is far more dangerous than a real sense of vulnerability."
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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.
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You have friends who only communicate by Facebook, but you don't use Facebook because you can't trust it.
With respect, the solution is not to take that same information and throw it on yet another server run by yet another unknown third party.
"Give your information, or give it not, there is no 'trust'."
Or... (Score:2, Insightful)
FTA:
the tool assures its users that sensitive data stays private, Hengartner says. "If you have a particular illness, you might want to allow only your friends to see that
What ever happened to calling people?
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Not on Facebook, but on an obscure website? (Score:5, Insightful)
I think I'll just stick with having my facebook profile as only a mask of myself, and not my entire life. Thanx
All this hiding (Score:3)
can't I just not use facebook?
Oh ya? Facebook can fix this (Score:5, Insightful)
I agree with everyone else. If you don't want Facebook knowing all your dirty little secrets don't post your dirty laundry online. Once its online it will NEVER go away... Google Cache, The Wayback Machine [archive.org] and other caching services will leave a digital trail of your stink for ever. Long after that nasty rash goes away.
But think of the drama opportunities! (Score:2)
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"Social networking sites are all about the drama."
Yes, imagine the pure torture someone would go through...
Post Header: "That Skanky Ho, Wendy, is at it again!"
Only Wendy finds out that SHE can't read the rest of the post...In fact, nobody but the poster can.
Teen Girls(between the ages of 10 and 12) around the world now have a new weapon with which to inflict great emotional distress on their anti-peers. I expect the carnage to be widespread and most gruesome (left, left, right, left, left...)
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!
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You have to be more subtle with your fake info.
I used all fake info and they didn't complain.
Instead of saying you name is "Fuck Facebook" try "Joe Smith", etc.
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I did! It wasn't John Doe, John Smith, etc. Lame. Whatever, don't need it and tired of moving to new social networks!
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Rusty Shackleford.
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It's subtle, but it's not very funny. I usually try to use something like Mike Litoris, if "real" name is required.
Another useless application that will never fly (Score:3, Insightful)
There are 3 Major flaws in this:
Those concerned with what strangers see on Facebook don't put information they don't want strangers to see on Facebook.
Those who use Facebook in such a manner aren't the type who have the time to install tools, run them, send the key to their friends, and then append @@ to everything they want hidden.
Facebook already provides the means to keep your stuff secret to just your friends, and its easier to close off your profile to the public then it is to Encrypt random Data.
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ROFL (Score:2)
The sensitive data itself is even stored on an outside server so that even Facebook cannot access it.
So, Facebook doesn't have access to it but someone else does. Oh yes this is SOOOOO much better.
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Obviously, all you have to do is put data in the outside server that's encrypted in some other way. Then Facebook just has a link to data that's really just a link to somewhere else. See? Problem solved.
Hides the info from Facebook and their partners (Score:2)
Many people are saying... if you don't want it seen then don't post it. I don't mind my friends seeing my status (or whatever) but I don't want the Facebook Company or their partners (ie Microsoft) seeing my profile. Sounds like this plugin might solve that problem.
Target audience.. (Score:2)
I'm sure this is a nice thing for some selected folks (mostly geeks) who know:
1, What security is.
2, How to use it.
For the rest (99.9+%) of the facebook / twitter crowd this will mean nothing, because they can't even understand the first concept, let alone the second..
Filter @ characters (Score:2)
Similar social site that NEVER shares your info (Score:2)
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They can filter out annoying people! Can I get one of those for real life?
NO.
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Items that make the front page from the firehose are tagged 'story' so that when viewing from the firehose, you can see that the item has posted to the front page.
It's a functionality kludge (surely there's a better way to indicate item status) but then again, so is much of the slashcode.
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.
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I agree. This tool is completely redundant. The only people who would want to keep their data private on Facebook are the ones who didn't put their information on it in the first place.
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