# Lifestyles & Discussion > Privacy & Data Security >  FarceBook scans private messages for "likes".

## Anti Federalist

Is this old FraudBook news, or some new outrage?

Seems I heard this before...then again, with FedBook, anything's possible.



*Facebook scans private messages to hand out public 'Likes'*

http://www.whptv.com/news/local/stor...D07UdUA2Q.cspx

Facebook doesnt just rely on its users to hit the Like button around the Web to tell the world that they endorse a product, news article, hotel, or LOLcat. It scans their private messages to friends, and when it sees a link to a Likeable page, it doles out Likes accordingly. Two Likes per private message sent, to be exact. This is a fascinating find by security researcher Ashkan Soltani, writing for the Wall Street Journal:

A recent online video shows that the social networking site scans the links youre sending  registering them as though you Like the page you sent.  The video, which was posted this week on Hacker News, showed a person who sent links in Facebook messages in order to inflate the number of Likes a page had received. Each time the link was sent, the pages Like count went up by two, something that the Hacker News poster said allows people to pump up to 1,800 Likes in an hour.

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## wgadget

I am eternally grateful that I quit FarceBook cold turkey. It was painless.

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## specsaregood

offtopic, i ran into some crazed psycho in the pitch black of night tonight in the middle of a field while walking my dogs, he pulled out a notebook and wanted all my information, name, address, email and when i refused asked me to pull up his facebook page and "like it".  still weirded out by it all.  wish i remembered the facebook page he was ranting about. edit: I almost called the cops to report him; but didn't because I figured he didn't do anything worth getting killed over.

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## DerailingDaTrain

> offtopic, i ran into some crazed psycho in the pitch black of night tonight in the middle of a field while walking my dogs, he pulled out a notebook and wanted all my information, name, address, email and when i refused asked me to pull up his facebook page and "like it".  still weirded out by it all.  wish i remembered the facebook page he was ranting about. edit: I almost called the cops to report him; but didn't because I figured he didn't do anything worth getting killed over.

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## specsaregood

> 


totally serious,  it was a surreal experience.  my dogs saw the guy well before I did, I had to stop and look around for about 45 seconds to see why they were going nuts before I saw this guy in black standing not 10ft in front of me...

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## Indy Vidual

Facebook's first major investor was a _"libertarian"_ who also donated millions to Ron Paul's pac(s)

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## Chester Copperpot

hmm you say a man in black out in a field alone in the dead of night eh?

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## specsaregood

> hmm you say a man in black out in a field alone in the dead of night eh?


and the first thing he said to me was, "i just saw a shooting star". my dogs did not care for him, at all.

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## Indy Vidual

> and the first thing he said to me was, "i just saw a shooting star"....


Did he make a wish?
Why do you assume he is a _crazed psycho?_
Do you ever consider he was _looking for a boyfriend?_

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## specsaregood

> Did he make a wish?


yeah, his dream/goal was to do handstand pushups on his finger tips "like bruce lee"




> Why do you assume he is a _crazed psycho?_


im guessing I figured that out somewhere between when he told me he had just done 850 pushups and wanted to beat his record of 1250 and when he pulled out a notepad and writing device and asked my name, address, email and where I lived.




> Do you ever consider he was _looking for a boyfriend?_


It did, somewhere between him asking if I wanted to watch him do another 100 pushups and asking why my dogs were growling at him.

edit: And mind you, this was all going on in the middle of a moonless night grassy field.

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## belian78

> I am eternally grateful that I quit FarceBook cold turkey. It was painless.


I'm in week one here, stayin strong.

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## adisongrace

FB tyranny isn't really new...it's nothing more than an pentagon intel hub...

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## AngryCanadian

I haven't quit facebook yet because i need it my family friends is in Europe. They use it cause calling people costs a lot.

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## John F Kennedy III

> yeah, his dream/goal was to do handstand pushups on his finger tips "like bruce lee"
> 
> 
> im guessing I figured that out somewhere between when he told me he had just done 850 pushups and wanted to beat his record of 1250 and when he pulled out a notepad and writing device and asked my name, address, email and where I lived.
> 
> 
> It did, somewhere between him asking if I wanted to watch him do another 100 pushups and asking why my dogs were growling at him.
> 
> edit: And mind you, this was all going on in the middle of a moonless night grassy field.


This is a truly fascinating story. Seriously.

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## Brian4Liberty

The crazies love parks.

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## MoneyWhereMyMouthIs2

> offtopic, i ran into some crazed psycho in the pitch black of night tonight in the middle of a field while walking my dogs, he pulled out a notebook and wanted all my information, name, address, email and when i refused asked me to pull up his facebook page and "like it".  still weirded out by it all.  wish i remembered the facebook page he was ranting about. edit: I almost called the cops to report him; but didn't because I figured he didn't do anything worth getting killed over.



What kind of field?





> and the first thing he said to me was, "i just saw a shooting star". my dogs did not care for him, at all.



I don't think I'd be getting any warm fuzzies, either.  

If a true story (and you did SAY it was), it sounds like he was out there on some psychedelics or something.  I don't see any way I would be comfortable with that interaction if I were either of you.  But if I were you, I guess I would have let him do 100 more push ups since he offered.  lol

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## Mundane

Thank you. This is very useful information for those of us who use FB as nothing more than a marketing tool with fake profiles and fake information.

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## MoneyWhereMyMouthIs2

> Thank you. This is very useful information for those of us who use FB as nothing more than a marketing tool with fake profiles and fake information.


Then you should already know this.  lol

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## specsaregood

> What kind of field?


Way out at the very outskirts of the outfield of a softball field, next to a patch of woods.




> I don't think I'd be getting any warm fuzzies, either.  
> If a true story (and you did SAY it was), it sounds like he was out there on some psychedelics or something.  I don't see any way I would be comfortable with that interaction if I were either of you.  But if I were you, I guess I would have let him do 100 more push ups since he offered.  lol


Yeah, it is true; although I could see how it could be analogy for facebook: the faceless stranger that acts friendly all the while asking you to voluntarily give up all your personal information while they record it.  lol   From henceforth, while discussing this nameless shadowy person, I shall dub him, "facebook".

Yeah, I figured facebook was on a drug, or perhaps he was just an assburgers or autistic guy on the loose.     When facebook asked me for my facebook page and begged me to like his page, i almost retorted with my standard response that if I wanted to communicate with the CIA I'd just call Langley myself but decided that wasn't the right response in that situation.

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## MoneyWhereMyMouthIs2

> Way out at the very outskirts of the outfield of a softball field, next to a patch of woods.
> 
> 
> Yeah, it is true; although I could see how it could be analogy for facebook: the faceless stranger that acts friendly all the while asking you to voluntarily give up all your personal information while they record it.  lol   From henceforth, while discussing this nameless shadowy person, I shall dub him, "facebook".
> 
> Yeah, I figured facebook was on a drug, or perhaps he was just an assburgers or autistic guy on the loose.     When facebook asked me for my facebook page and begged me to like his page, i almost retorted with my standard response that if I wanted to communicate with the CIA I'd just call Langley myself but decided that wasn't the right response in that situation.



rofl.  And the reason I would have let him do the push ups, btw, is because it would only make him a weaker opponent if need be. Sounds like you were more creeped out than threatened, but maybe I'm a little more skiddish when surprised.  I'm guessing this guy was just really high on something, since those are the only people I ever hear talking about just going and sitting in a field for seemingly no reason.  He may even think he imagined you.  By the sound of it, I probably cross paths with more dangerous people regularly... just not in isolated areas.

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## coastie

> I am eternally grateful that I quit FarceBook cold turkey. It was painless.


Wish I could say the same about my nicotine addiction....Good thing is, I never started Facebook to begin with, and never will.

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## Mundane

> Then you should already know this.  lol


Not really. I am paying an employee to do it. I hate spending time on FB. So boring. I have forwarded my employee the info to make use of.

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## Anti Federalist

> Thank you. This is very useful information for those of us who use FB as nothing more than a marketing tool with fake profiles and fake information.


That's a violation of FedBook's TOS, isn't it?

Way to respect private property.

/s

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## Mundane

> That's a violation of FedBook's TOS, isn't it?
> 
> Way to respect private property.
> 
> /s


Sorry, I have no respect for FB. They can shut me down if they want, but in the meantime I intend to exploit them as they have no qualms exploiting everyone else.

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## MoneyWhereMyMouthIs2

> Not really. I am paying an employee to do it. I hate spending time on FB. So boring. I have forwarded my employee the info to make use of.



Probably better to hire it out.  I'm just thinking by the time a facebook marketing tip makes it to RPF, it's gonna be useless real soon.  





> That's a violation of FedBook's TOS, isn't it?
> 
> Way to respect private property.
> 
> /s



lol.  Don't worry.  I doubt they comply with their tos either.

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## Mundane

> Probably better to hire it out.  I'm just thinking by the time a facebook marketing tip makes it to RPF, it's gonna be useless real soon.  
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> lol.  Don't worry.  I doubt they comply with their tos either.


Both excellent points.

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## Indy Vidual

> ...the Hacker News poster said allows people to pump up to 1,800 Likes in an hour.


Fake Facebook likes = MySpace 2.0
All the people who used to _try_ to make $$ from fake MySpace accounts needed somewhere to go.

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