No Privacy: User Events Displayed to the Whole World via Facebook API Hole
News of social networks being the starting ground leaked personal information or malicious attacks is never ending as we report a new concern over user privacy being an issue via a Facebook API Hole.
In Facebook's so-called attempt to take over the Internet through the use of features such as their RFID tags (ability to tag yourself in photos, become a fan of pages and share activity to your Facebook profile), they suffer from major concerns over user privacy and other potential issues.
The latest discovery, reemphasizing that Facebook is still struggling to combat privacy issues, is a lapse the Google software engineer Ka-Ping Yee found within the Graph API search query system. He found that by simply searching for a person on Facebook's Graph API search query will bring up a full list of events that a particular person is planning to attend. This is not exactly the type of user privacy many Facebook users expect.
Would you want anyone in the world to know that you plan on attending the next event hosted by extremists or an event that you do not want your noisy and aggravating neighbor to know about? That is just what may be happening all due to a Facebook API hole. Digging even further into this issue, Yee discovered that by adjusting your privacy settings to the highest level on Facebook still does not prevent others from viewing events that you plan on attending.
Events that you agree to attend via Facebook calendars are not as confidential as they claim to be. Facebook event calendars can actually reveal more than just the date and time of the event, but it may reveal your home address, names of other groups you associate with, your hobbies, political views and even your home address. A criminal could basically camp outside of your house and wait for you to run-off to the next planned event listed on Facebook, break into your house and then steal personal belongings. That does not sound very fun does it?
Experts who have also discovered this hole with Facebook are suggesting that you simply click "Not Attending" next time you receive an event invitation. Until Facebook fixes these holes it may be a good idea to use extra caution by not using certain applications and avoid accepting certain requests such as events.
Have you searched for yourself via zest.ca/facebook to see what information is made public on your Facebook profile? If not, now may be a good time to make a surprising discovery.