Bend Over, Facebook is Back

[viscousmemories]

I was using Pandora today and my Facebook profile picture appeared in a bar at the top, asking if I wanted to go ahead and hook up or something. Then I saw this status update from my sister:

As of today, there is a new privacy setting called "Instant Personalization" that shares data with non-facebook websites and it is automatically set to "Allow." If you do not want this, go to Account > Privacy Settings > Applications and Websites and uncheck "Allow".

God I hate that site. I really wish I could keep up with my family some other way.

[Dingfod]

Yahoo!Groups? That's how the Dingfod's do it.

[Ari]

Another reminder to watch what you put on facebook not so much because big brother is watching but because facebook has sticky fingers and thinks all of your stuff is theirs.

[fragment]

Hmm, it was already unchecked when I went there. What's up, facebook? Not quite completely evil? It's like you're not even trying any more.

[Qingdai]

Mine was checked.

[Doctor X]

Originally Posted by viscousmemories

God I hate that site. I really wish I could keep up with my family some other way.

--J.D.

[Sorrel]

Thanks for the heads up. Passing on the info via my status now!

[Ymir's blood]

Unchecked, thanks.

[Clutch Munny]

I killed my Facebook site last month.

[Leesifer]

Originally Posted by fragment

Hmm, it was already unchecked when I went there. What's up, facebook? Not quite completely evil? It's like you're not even trying any more.

Mine too!

[Ymir's blood]

Originally Posted by Leesifer

Mine too!

Facebook is trying to distance itself from some people.

[viscousmemories]

So far from this thread it looks like it was checked for US Citizens and unchecked for other countries. I wonder if that's because other countries are less forgiving of companies that trample privacy.

[Ymir's blood]

Any word on whether it was checked for Barrack Obama?

[Ensign Steve]

I saw this on woot, and I still don't understand what it is. I already have a woot login, so when it asked if I wanted to log into woot using my facebook account, I said no. I didn't see a checkbox there or on facebook, so I have no idea what I should be looking for. I feel like a grandma.

[Ymir's blood]

"Account" drop down menu at top of the page > "Privacy Settings" > "Applications and Websites" > last entry is for "Instant Personalization" >hit the "edit settings" button

[slimshady2357]

In the UK here and it was checked for me.

[Adam]

Mine was checked. There was a banner about it yesterday that I clicked though though, so I'm not sure if I opted in at that point or not. I didn't read it all that carefully, because FB doesn't have any info I care about keeping private.

Their partner integration is wonky, though. I hit Yelp, because that was the sample site they showed on the settings page, and it found all kinds of reviews my FB friends had posted, until I logged in. Now it claims I don't have any friends, except the few I already had in Yelp. So, uh, the integration works, but only when I'm not logged into their partner sites? Thanks, Facebook!

[Ensign Steve]

Mine was also checked, and when I unchecked it, it warned me that I would be losing out on some awesome internet experiences and that my friends would probably just share my information anyway so why bother.

Originally Posted by Adam

Mine was checked. There was a banner about it yesterday that I clicked though though, so I'm not sure if I opted in at that point or not. I didn't read it all that carefully, because FB doesn't have any info I care about keeping private.

I saw the banner yesterday, and I clicked on the "learn more" link, but it never took me to where I could opt out or in. I had to drill down like 5 or 6 pages, which I wouldn't have bothered to poke through if I hadn't gotten the direct path from Ymir's blood.

I guess the woot thing I saw was for something else, since they're not listed as a partner. I've seen "log in using your facebook account" on other sites before this new Instant thingie they have now, so it was probably that.

I might have left it checked, but I don't use any of those partner sites anyway, so there's no point.

Oh, also, you guys keep in mind that all the third-party stuff works with your facebook cookie, so if you log out of facebook every time, the rest of it is moot.

[Adam]

Oh, I didn't check to see how it worked. In that case, it would also be moot if you just disabled third party cookies in your browser.

[Ensign Steve]

You think? I figured that setting just prevented third-party sites from putting a cookie on your computer, not from reading one that's already there. Actually, I have no idea one way or the other, I never thought about it that way.

[Adam]

I think that's how it works. I could be wrong. I'm basing this on my vague memory of when I had to coordinate integration between one of our portal sites and our single sign on solution a couple years ago. Our site would look for the SSO site's cookie, and it would not work if third party cookies was were disallowed on the browser.

[Miisa]

Mine was unchecked.

[Deadlokd]

Unchecked.

[viscousmemories]

Originally Posted by Ensign Steve

Mine was also checked, and when I unchecked it, it warned me that I would be losing out on some awesome internet experiences and that my friends would probably just share my information anyway so why bother.

Thanks for that. After reading this I dug through their FAQ and found that the only way to prevent your friends from sharing your info with these apps is to block each individual app that Fb is a "partner" with. Right now that's apparently just Microsoft Docs, Pandora and Yelp! but I assume they'll add more (and consequently make the users check the list regularly and manually block the apps to prevent their friends from sharing their information).

This shit should seriously be illegal.

[Doctor X]

Yet another reason I refuse to be involved with that crap.

--J.D.