And people wonder why I avoid Facebook...

[Vekseid]

http://www.businessinsider.com/how-mark-zuckerberg-hacked-into-the-harvard-crimson-2010-3
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-mark-zuckerberg-hacked-connectu-2010-3

Instead, he decided to access the email accounts of Crimson editors and review their emails.  How did he do this?  Here's how Mark described his hack to a friend:

Mark used his site, TheFacebook.com, to look up members of the site who identified themselves as members of the Crimson.  Then he examined a log of failed logins to see if any of the Crimson members had ever entered an incorrect password into TheFacebook.com.  If the cases in which they had entered failed logins, Mark tried to use them to access the Crimson members' Harvard email accounts.  He successfully accessed two of them.

In other words, Mark appears to have used private login data from TheFacebook to hack into the separate email accounts of some TheFacebook users.

Charming fellow.

[Talia]

*Laughs*  Yes, that's why it is good to keep what you don't public somewhere else and use other methods to it. I do however like being connected there.
It is a faster way of staying in the "know" and getting a response quicker when things change or just staying current with a few people, especially the ones that live further away or are always on the go. 

[Lilias]

Avoiding Facebook is a mark of sanity. You want to stay connected to people? Pick up the phone and call them. Even better, write them a letter/email. Less likely to waste everyone's time with inanities.

[CaptainErotica]

While I don't use Facebook on a regular basis, it has allowed me to reconnect with my best friend from high school, one of the first girls i ever had a crush on -she's got a PhD in Oceanography now, and a long lost sailor buddy who I hadn't talked to in years. It has it's uses, but as with anything good is only good in moderation....well except maybe sex.

[jouzinka]

...well except maybe sex.

And money. XD

I don't use FB either. A few times I got the inclination to, but since it asks for my name on the front registration page and I can't skip that, I'm off that page in 0,235 seconds.

[Torch]

Avoiding Facebook is a mark of sanity. You want to stay connected to people? Pick up the phone and call them.

This. The people I want to stay in touch with, I call or email (or see them in person). The ones I don't...meh.

[WhiteyChan]

Ok, well, I'm on the side of Facebook here, I actually think its a great idea, especially with the "Facebook Chat" thing. Great way to keep in contact with everyone from back home, from holidays (got about 50 people on my facebook who I met in the States when I was over there), from frisbee teams and from various other places including university. The groups are useful (if you ignore the whole, I LOL'D AT THIS thing) for organising stuff, and my calendar is basically taken from my Facebook events - I do literally run my life around Facebook events.

I don't care about them having my personal details, either - I use a spam email address for it, rather than my proper one, so I don't get tons of emails from them. And most of my personal details are already on the web anyway from various other sites, like UKUltimate or BritDisc or whatever, or from being webmaster for a theatre company for a coupe of years. If one of the facebook staff was so inclined to use my personal details to do something (which is highly, highly unlikely), then its just as easy for them to find stuff out about me by just looking around a bit as to just take it off my Facebook details. Besides, the privacy settings are awesome, I can stop anyone random from seeing anything about me unless they're my friend, so all of my pictures/videos/wall comments/email address/etc are safe.

And, as for writing/calling people... I'm a student - I can't really afford to send letters out to people by post, my room phone has no credit on it, and if I texted/called everyone I talked to as regularly as I do on facebook, then I would very quickly rack up a huge bill, 500 free texts/100 free minutes or not. Email would be the only viable alternative, and its just a pain to email everyone on a regular basis, much easier to just write one quick status update and see what people comment about it - or create an event, to see who's coming to a party, or a group for people so I can send them all messages at the same time with a single click. Saves having loads of back-and-forth email conversations to try and sort out a party or whatever.

So yeah. I completely disagree with all that you have said. I heart my facebooks. :-)

[KieraHaroden]

I absolutely love Facebook! It is so easy to stay in touch with friends on there - much quicker than writing/emailing/calling in my opinion. I have found my first ever friend on Facebook - we hadn't seen or spoken to each other in nigh on 16 years! And suddenly, there she is on Facebook.  :D

All of my details are private, thanks to the marvelous privacy settings you can modify to your own desires! Only friends I have on my friends list can view anything on my profile, and no one can view anything until I accept them as a friend! I see no issue with Facebook - I don't understand why so many hate it, for whatever reasons. Its convenient, easy to use, and is useful for so many. I heart Facebook also!

[AllieCat]

Reminds me of a co-worker.. nice guy.. just so scatterbrained.. he's always forgetting his passwords (work forbids us to use the same passwords for the various systems we have to log into to do our job)..it got to the point that he gave up and just wrote down all his passwords on a sticky note and stuck it to his computer.. which is good for him, but I'm sure it gives our IT security team hives just thinking about it!

[Talia]

I don't think any site on line is security tight. Yes, it is pretty silly writing down your codes on a post it... however I do have a book for mine and names of my linked accounts... but have to as some aren't in my name.
Face Book is my iPhone ...until I get one. When I do ...I will probably not need
Face Book any more.

[Oniya]

Reminds me of a co-worker.. nice guy.. just so scatterbrained.. he's always forgetting his passwords (work forbids us to use the same passwords for the various systems we have to log into to do our job)..it got to the point that he gave up and just wrote down all his passwords on a sticky note and stuck it to his computer.. which is good for him, but I'm sure it gives our IT security team hives just thinking about it!

My work has this bizarre set of requirements for passwords - which does create strong-ish passwords, but ends up with the same end problem.  A password must be at least eight characters, and must include two numbers, one capital, one special symbol AND can not be an  English word.

I love having a collection of non-Romance language dictionaries.

[The Dark Raven]

Just noticed, reading...

He used TheFacebook.com, not facebook.com...

*shrug*

[AlexStone]

Just noticed, reading...

He used TheFacebook.com, not facebook.com...

*shrug*

I noticed that too, so I ran it through the browser- it redirects to Facebook.  I thought it might have been more about a security failure with Havard's own facebook site.  (That is, their internal facebook, not Harvard on Facebook.)

[The Dark Raven]

Good to know...kinda creepy tho. XD

[Arhys]

I fall quite firmly in the facebook-is-the-greatest-thing-ever camp, I can honestly say it has been life changing.  I left the U.S. immediately after college, email was still somewhat obscure then, so there is no possible way I was able to maintain contact with anyone given universities, new jobs, moving, various telephone numbers or later the email changes.  I've lived in quite a few places since then, and met wonderful people along the way.  Every facet of my life has come together on fb, and I rejoice in it.  I don't have physical roots, but with facebook I don't need that, and I feel much more grounded having those ties to my past reestablished.

I used phone and email for years, there is no way either of those technologies could give me a sense of the day to day lives of my friends.  Usually I felt pressured to give a 3 month or 6 month summary, make it deep to strengthen my bond with them or whatever and it doesn't work.  Playing mafia wars with some old friends from high school have us a way to be together virtually, to trash talk and have fun without the pressure of the great-catching-up-on-life email.  I cherish seeing the daily or hourly struggles and jokes from my friends with kids, or dealing with crappy bosses, or whatever.  It is so much more immediate and personal.  My cousin can post something, my mom responds, and then so can I--it's like a family visit and that interaction never would have happened with email.
 

[Tachi]

Intelligent guy but paranoid making.

[Red Tressed Imp]

Instead, he decided to access the email accounts of Crimson editors and review their emails.  How did he do this?  Here's how Mark described his hack to a friend:

Mark used his site, TheFacebook.com, to look up members of the site who identified themselves as members of the Crimson.  Then he examined a log of failed logins to see if any of the Crimson members had ever entered an incorrect password into TheFacebook.com.  If the cases in which they had entered failed logins, Mark tried to use them to access the Crimson members' Harvard email accounts.  He successfully accessed two of them.

In other words, Mark appears to have used private login data from TheFacebook to hack into the separate email accounts of some TheFacebook users

I seriously have to doubt the validity of this article when it repeatedly calls the site "TheFacebook."

Look, I'm a journalist. I've been working as one for over ten years now, and I currently own a newspaper. Journalists can twist things around to make a certain point in an article. It's unethical to do it, but it's done. A lot.

I will give you an example. I gave an interview to a journalist from The Boston Phoenix about this fundraiser I held. She asked me why I decided to auction off time with people instead of the customary items. I replied that I thought bidders would spend more money on time with other people and perhaps have more fun too. She quoted me as saying "it's more fun." There are misquotes and purposeful redirects.

You want to write an article on the fact that Michael Jackson was gay? You just find someone (seemingly) credible who is willing to say it.

Anyway, off rant. Sorry. In regards to FB, it's like anything else. Learn to use it properly and responsibly. If you can't or don't want to, then just don't go there.

[Oniya]

I seriously have to doubt the validity of this article when it repeatedly calls the site "TheFacebook."

Actually, in the historical sense of the article (remember that the hacking occurred early in Facebook's history), it was, in fact, properly known as 'TheFacebook.com'.  When I first read the article, I initially assumed that 'TheFacebook.com'  was a poorly disguised phishing attempt, but I discovered I was wrong.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2004/2/9/hundreds-register-for-new-facebook-website/

[Vekseid]

I seriously have to doubt the validity of this article when it repeatedly calls the site "TheFacebook."

...

Facebook was originally thefacebook.com. facebook.com was registered by someone else in 1997 (when the founder was ~11, for crying out loud). It takes seconds to validate this information.

As for the ConnectU stuff, there was at least one settlement.

[Red Tressed Imp]

It's like anything else that becomes popular. Video games cause obesity. Rap music leads to an increase in violence. Facebook users have their privacy invaded.

Perhaps. But that's the risk you take when you post to ANY site. If you come to my blog and post a comment, I can get your IP address. Websites get certain information from you and share it with other sites. For example, I once applied online for a personal loan. Within 30 minutes, I had hundreds of spam e-mail from different loan companies.

When I first started using Facebook, I didn't have my privacy controls set. Anyone could read my information, and this was forcibly brought to my attention when my creepy stalker/ex boyfriend PMed me there to comment on my relationship status. So I changed my privacy controls.

I keep reading these articles that state FB has privacy issues. No, FB has issues with its users not understanding how it works. These articles are being written because the doom and gloom scenarios sell. No one wants to read articles about old high school friends reconnecting on a social network site. They want "OMG! The sky is falling!"

People make mistakes, especially young people who suddenly gain a lot of power or fame. It goes straight to their heads, and they think they can get away with anything. Hopefully, the settlement taught Mark Zuckerberg a lesson, though honestly, he does sound like a real piece of...

But lots of websites are owned by people who are immoral jerkwads. We just never know that about them. :D

[Vekseid]

The recent brouhaha is over the Instant Personalization program, which is something else you need to turn off lest a creepy stalker ex forge a link to a site that scrapes one of the pages in the program that isn't properly secured. You don't need to just trust Facebook - you need to also trust everyone they are involved with.

Which is a much taller order, otherwise us geeks would be up in arms at Google and anyone remotely knowledgeable about the subject is at least nervous.