Facebook - what do I tell my wife?

2»

Comments

  • People probably used to say that about the telephone. They may have been right.

    I can't imagine the concept of a residential telephone directory would catch on today...
  • I still feel that way about the telephone! I dislike it intensely, but feel it a necessary evil. (But that doesn't mean I have to answer it every time it rings.)

    And I refuse to get a "smart" 'phone. I have a very simple cell phone that is always turned off except if I need to make an emergency call. Nobody has the number to it.
  • finelinefineline Kerygmania Host, 8th Day Host
    I love my smart phone, but I use it mainly as a personal organiser, and camera, and to listen to music, and to go online. The number of phone calls that happen on it is so small that I forget that is its primary function!
  • Some years ago at work they gave iphones to some of the mobile users for the first time and the MD was bemused to see that in the manual the seventh thing we were told how to do was making and receiving calls.
  • latepaullatepaul Shipmate Posts: 12
    I was curious about the OP's description of what happened so I did a little test.

    I logged out of Facebook and then tried to create a new account. I entered different information to my real account, apart from the same surname. Once I hit the big green "Sign Up" button it took me to a screen where it asked me to enter a security code it had emailed me. I checked my email, there was such a code, I entered it and yes it logged me in to my original Facebook account.

    Now what I haven't mentioned so far is that the email address I used for this new sign-up is a secondary one on my FB account. Also the email is titled "xxxxx is your Facebook account recovery code". So it appears that if you enter an email associated with your account into the sign up fields it then enters the account recovery process. I tried this again with my primary FB email address (the one I usually log in with) and the same thing happened. Oh and I also got an email saying that someone had logged in using a "confirmation code".

    So I wonder if Mrs Andras had put Andras' email as a secondary one on her account?

    I'm curious about this stuff because I had a similar experience to CK's daughter. I have yet another email address that I wanted to add to my alternates in FB. I couldn't do so because someone else had used that email when signing up. Which seems to happen a lot with that account. I regularly get emails which are not spam but not directed at me. e.g. "Your car has been serviced and is now ready for pick up". Anyway FB support do not appear to exist. You end up posting in a help forum where the only responses are from other users.
  • Or doing what my daughter did, which was repeatedly closing the second account that was using her email until the nurse in Jamaica set up an account without using my daughter's email account. She tried going through the Facebook helplines but they were useless.

    My daughter also gets emails not directed to her, obviously for this same nurse, but it's not unknown, this misdirection by email to the wrong person.
  • latepaullatepaul Shipmate Posts: 12
    Or doing what my daughter did, which was repeatedly closing the second account that was using her email until the nurse in Jamaica set up an account without using my daughter's email account. She tried going through the Facebook helplines but they were useless.

    I've tried closing the account but Facebook won't let me unless I can guess the person's date of birth.

  • Not sure what other information my daughter had. The stuff she had emailed included the nurse's professional membership - which she was nice enough to return with a note that it had gone to the wrong email address, she really wasn't a nurse in Jamaica.
  • latepaullatepaul Shipmate Posts: 12
    To be fair I think there was an order of events I could have done things in that would have worked. Trouble is now the account is locked and so I can't even log into it without passing a security check (DOB).

    Anyway I'm much less invested in FB than I was back then (this was a few years ago) and I really only keep my FB account because my family like to use FB messenger. So I'm not too bothered about adding a secondary email to it.
  • To be fair, my daughter would have been less irritated had said nurse not signed up my daughter's email account for all the notifications. So she was getting deluged by someone else's crap and finding out far more than she ever wanted about someone else.
  • All of this is making me happier than ever that I don't do Facebook.

    Am I understanding this correctly, that if I know a friend's email address and birthday (which is true for quite a few people I know), that I could open a FB account and start receiving all of their postings?

    And people wonder why I don't do Facebook because of my privacy concerns!

  • You need access to that email account. The Jamaican nurse, who was distinctly lacking in computer savvy, used my daughter's email account to sign up for Facebook. So my daughter received all the notifications, and lots of information, including enough to answer the security question to delete the account.
  • latepaul wrote: »
    I was curious about the OP's description of what happened so I did a little test.

    I logged out of Facebook and then tried to create a new account. I entered different information to my real account, apart from the same surname. Once I hit the big green "Sign Up" button it took me to a screen where it asked me to enter a security code it had emailed me. I checked my email, there was such a code, I entered it and yes it logged me in to my original Facebook account.

    Now what I haven't mentioned so far is that the email address I used for this new sign-up is a secondary one on my FB account. Also the email is titled "xxxxx is your Facebook account recovery code". So it appears that if you enter an email associated with your account into the sign up fields it then enters the account recovery process. I tried this again with my primary FB email address (the one I usually log in with) and the same thing happened. Oh and I also got an email saying that someone had logged in using a "confirmation code".

    So I wonder if Mrs Andras had put Andras' email as a secondary one on her account?

    I'm curious about this stuff because I had a similar experience to CK's daughter. I have yet another email address that I wanted to add to my alternates in FB. I couldn't do so because someone else had used that email when signing up. Which seems to happen a lot with that account. I regularly get emails which are not spam but not directed at me. e.g. "Your car has been serviced and is now ready for pick up". Anyway FB support do not appear to exist. You end up posting in a help forum where the only responses are from other users.

    I checked with Mrs. A and she confirms what you suspected.

    I think you've nailed- brilliant! Thanks.
  • Well, the expert came as arranged and the session was a great success with everyone who attended.

    According to Mrs. Andras she sorted everything out and now, for no reason at all, I am getting Facebook alerts meant for Mrs. A. Was ever anything so utterly incompetent so much liked my so many people?

    (The present UK Government excepted, of course.)
  • Pigwidgeon wrote: »
    Am I understanding this correctly, that if I know a friend's email address and birthday (which is true for quite a few people I know), that I could open a FB account and start receiving all of their postings?

    I didn't give Facebook my correct birthday. AFAIK there's no law that says you have to, and if someone manages to hack your FB account they will find it a lot harder to steal your identity with the wrong birthday.
  • finelinefineline Kerygmania Host, 8th Day Host
    Also, it can be an idea to make a separate email account purely for FB and not share it with anyone.
  • Pigwidgeon wrote: »
    All of this is making me happier than ever that I don't do Facebook.

    Am I understanding this correctly, that if I know a friend's email address and birthday (which is true for quite a few people I know), that I could open a FB account and start receiving all of their postings?

    And people wonder why I don't do Facebook because of my privacy concerns!

    No, you couldn't. Not unless you also knew their email password.
  • I have a "birthday" that I use any time I have to give my birth date on a website.
  • mr cheesy wrote: »
    Andras wrote: »

    So how come the alleged geniuses at Facebook see a new account request in which all those things are different and assume that it's ok to log into an existing account with a different name and a different password?

    It would be fascinating to see if this could be replicated. If it happened exactly as stated, then the only explanation is that they are logging you in via your IP address - which is obviously not good.

    I wonder if that would explain a very similar problem I'm having with office365.com.
  • Amanda B ReckondwythAmanda B Reckondwyth Mystery Worship Editor
    Pigwidgeon wrote: »
    I have a "birthday" that I use any time I have to give my birth date on a website.

    In the early days of computing (perhaps it still is), it used to be that January 1, 1980 was "the beginning of time" in the world of software and operating systems. Since some of us have been around since the beginning of time, that's a good enough date for me.
  • I thought January 1, 1900 was the beginning of time.
  • Amanda B ReckondwythAmanda B Reckondwyth Mystery Worship Editor
    You must be older than Miss Amanda.
  • ClimacusClimacus Shipmate
    edited September 2018
    MS-DOS and IBM were 01/01/1980 [a date whose format works both here and the US!]
  • Climacus wrote: »
    MS-DOS and IBM were 01/01/1980 [a date whose format works both here and the US!]

    But not in Canada!
  • And then there was this - 50 million Facebook accounts reset following account takeover bug
    Facebook says almost 50 million of its users were left exposed by a security flaw.

    The company said attackers were able to exploit a vulnerability in a feature known as “View As” to gain control of people's accounts.

    The breach was discovered on Tuesday, Facebook said, and it has informed police.

    Users that had potentially been affected were prompted to re-log-in on Friday.
  • mr cheesy wrote: »
    This was a new device, never before accessed Facebook. My daughter does not access Facebook and never accessed Facebook on that device.

    The only possible connection is owr shared IP. As I said above if you'd actually read what I said.

    And the shared IP may well be sufficient - they'll have databases of IPs associated with residential service providers (as opposed to ones serving businesses like internet cafes), and that you were sharing that kind of IP let them infer that there was some relationship between the two of you (more so because of the shared surname).

    Going back to your first sentence - if you had used that new device to browse the web and visited any website that made use of Facebook's tracking technology (the 'Facebook Pixel'), then they'd have been able to start building up records on you - though this is kind of orthogonal to why they might have suggested your daughter as a contact.
  • Perhaps they just make completely random friend recommendations and by a staggeringly huge co-incidence they chose your daughter.
  • It continues! Having sworn off Fb and all its works, I discovered by accident today when clicking a link that not only did it take me to a Fb page but that the wretched program thought I was Mrs. Andras and had duly logged me in as such. And this despite the fact that she now has a new password - since the debacle which started this thread off - which she has never used on my computer. Indeed, she probably can't even remember it and I certainly don't have a clue what it is.

    The degree of incompetence which this reveals is staggering: for someone to be able to log directly in to another person's Fb page without the first idea of the user's password breaches just about every security protocol I can think of.
  • How bizarre.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    edited November 2018
    Andras wrote: »
    It continues! Having sworn off Fb and all its works, I discovered by accident today when clicking a link that not only did it take me to a Fb page but that the wretched program thought I was Mrs. Andras and had duly logged me in as such. And this despite the fact that she now has a new password - since the debacle which started this thread off - which she has never used on my computer. Indeed, she probably can't even remember it and I certainly don't have a clue what it is.

    The degree of incompetence which this reveals is staggering: for someone to be able to log directly in to another person's Fb page without the first idea of the user's password breaches just about every security protocol I can think of.

    It can't. Something else is going on. Mrs T and I share a computer but it can only access either of our FB accounts with our passwords.

    My guess it's the browser. Which browser are you using? Chrome is really good at remembering passwords independent of the machine you're using.
  • Karl, Mrs. A. and I have separate computers and tablets, and we literally never use the other person's machine.

    Her two are a laptop (using Firefox) and a Kindle (using the Fb app); mine are a desktop (also using Firefox) and a Hudl2 (using Chrome, but I've never wanted to access Fb on it and have never tried to. The app is I assume bundled but has never been fired up.)

    When Fb originally assumed that I was my wife when I tried to set up an Fb account on my desktop machine, it appears that because Mrs. A's recovery email address is the same as my main one it made the daft assumption that we were one and the same person, although we have different names and other details.

    She subsequently set herself a completely new password using her laptop and now generally logs in using that on her tablet. When I was directed to an Fb page yesterday from a site I was accessing on my desktop machine, Fb assumed I was her although I don't have a clue what her password is and it's never been entered on my computer.

    In other words, as I said yesterday, Fb gave me access to an account without my knowing the password. Which, as I also said, breaches every security protocol you can imagine.
  • Did your wife actually ever "log out" of Facebook on your machine ?
  • I think Facebook are the people to report it to @Andras, not us.

    My husband and I have multiple machines and this has never happened.

    Not that I’d worry if it did - we often use each other’s machines and apps.
  • You don't have to use the same machine for the browser to "know" you and pass previous login details to FB. I can install a brand new OS, install Chrome, log in to Chrome and be taken straight to FB and SoF because Chrome stores these centrally, not on the machine.

    My suspicion is the same is true of Firefox. This is more likely than your hypothesis that FB will log you in without a password if it thinks it might be you.
  • RossweisseRossweisse Hell Host, 8th Day Host
    I use Firefox, and it doesn't log me into anything automatically.
  • Wet Kipper wrote: »
    Did your wife actually ever "log out" of Facebook on your machine ?

    Well, she was never logged in on it as herself, I was logged in in her name; and I logged out right away. And since then she has changed her password on her machines, not on mine. Either way, I'm now wondering if this is fundamentally a network issue.

    It's quite true that Facebook ought to know about it, but then I'm not a member, am I? And I'm told that it's not exactly easy to get in touch with them even if you are a member; it seems they don't want to know about problems, just to mine your data and flog it to someone else.
  • I run a shop on Facebook and I’ve found them helpful. I’d never reach my customers any other way.

    Horses for courses.
  • It sounds like the computer is synced to whatever device your wife used to set up her account. If so, you can undo this in the system functions, or if it’s a Mac, in iCloud.
  • Browsers store cookies, passwords and history. They reference some combination of these as you surf their internet. Thus: Facebook tracks that you were on it where ever else you look. Even when you're not logged in This is how it manages advertising. Google does the exact same thing.

    Thus: not logged in to Facebook (never use it on this phone), nevertheless Facebook has tried to track my phone 4 times in less than 10 minutes. Google also. I block these trackers with an app because I don't like to be tracked. I manually login in to everything every time. It's kind of locking the front door of my house.

    In addition with Facebook, if you use any apps at all within it, those also track you.

    I created a completely made up person, created a Facebook account for them and had more than 200 friends after 2 weeks. Doesn't even have a picture. You do need multiple email accounts, a location spoofing program helps. This is probably too much info for most.
  • I created a completely made up person, created a Facebook account for them and had more than 200 friends after 2 weeks. Doesn't even have a picture. You do need multiple email accounts, a location spoofing program helps. This is probably too much info for most.

    Why did you create a person for FB? Enquiring minds want to know?

  • How many of the 200 are real people?
  • I created a fake person as an experiment. To make a point about it. It was via another forum where we were discussing things about privacy.

    Near as I can tell the "friends" are real people. Could see all sorts of info about them. Friend one person, then Friend a friend of that person. Never posted anything, never liked anything, never commented. Only detail was made up name. In fairness I made up an ethnically suggestive name. It appeared that the friending snowballs once you Friend a very connected up person.

    This is why I hold that you should post details on it that you would share with the general public. Like in a newspaper.

    I also hold that you must delete all tracking cookies, don't use phone location by default, close apps completely and not leave running in the background, not use a phone as a paying service nor use loyalty cards or coupons on a phone etc. I don't think Facebook needs to know my average speed of travel to a store, in what kind of car and the condition of the car, what aisle in a store I lingered in and didn't buy, the list of my purchased items, the room design of my home etc. Nor, if I wear a smart watch, how long and restful my sleep was, my blood pressure and heart rate, how long it takes my to poop. You get the the idea. Worse the number of "smart devices" you own.
  • North East QuineNorth East Quine Shipmate
    edited September 2019
    On the subject of giving away personal details....

    The North East Man and I were in a cafe when a family came in - Mum, Dad, daughter, son. The father had names tattooed in inch high letters down each forearm, which I assumed were the names of his children. First and middle names. The names weren't unusual, but I reckoned the combination of first and middle would make them identifiable. We were sitting at a table, they were queuing for coffee, and I could read the names easily.

    So I pulled out my tablet, and ran both through the index of births on Scotlandspeople, the government website. There were nine girls with that combination of first and middle, and fourteen boys. It was easy to spot the surname which appeared in both lists. That gave me the two childrens' year and town of birth, and the mother's maiden name.

    I ran the combination of maiden name / married name through Scotlandspeople, and that gave me the parents year and place of marriage, and their first names.

    I ran the parents names through Facebook. The photos confirmed I had the right people, and there was all sorts of personal info there.

    The whole thing took under 20 mins. At that point, I could have gone across to their table and said " X! I hardly recognised you! You've lost weight! You're looking great! (Her whole weightloss story was on Facebook). Gosh! Aren't Y and Z growing! Is Y still enjoying dancing? etc etc" and watched as she tried to figure out where she knew me from.

    I didn't do that, of course, but only because I'm not mean.

    Masses of online info, accessible because the father had his kids' names tattooed on his arms, and the couple had no privacy settings on their Facebook pages.



  • I agree - I treat Facebook, and any other website, including the Ship as if it’s a newspaper and I’m responding in the ‘letters page’.

    I friend anyone who looks like they have a Labrador, this is the way I grow my business.

    I do get the occasional friend request which is clearly dodgy. ‘Men’ fishing, no doubt in order to befriend women romantically then screw them (for money). They are stupidly obvious. I accept their friend request. They quickly send a PM with ‘how are you?’ or something equally innocuous, hoping to strike up conversation. Their profile photo is invariably good looking and sporty/military in tone.

    I block them immediately, of course.
  • As well as having privacy setting set high in FB, my rule of thumb for accepting friends requests is "would I mind being stuck in a lift with you." It's not enough that I know you in real life. I have to know and like you that well.... I have, I think, 20 FB friends, from a surprisingly wide spread of my life's story!
  • RossweisseRossweisse Hell Host, 8th Day Host
    Boogie wrote: »
    ...I do get the occasional friend request which is clearly dodgy. ‘Men’ fishing, no doubt in order to befriend women romantically then screw them (for money). They are stupidly obvious. I accept their friend request. They quickly send a PM with ‘how are you?’ or something equally innocuous, hoping to strike up conversation. Their profile photo is invariably good looking and sporty/military in tone.

    I block them immediately, of course.
    I don't get the requests because I arranged my settings so that no one who isn't a friend of a friend can send me one. (Someone managed to get through that barrier somehow - and the photos on his page were indeed of a good-looking older man who was sporty/military.)

    That doesn't mean I don't get the "men" fishing, but it's via messaging. I turn them over to Fb for hacking. Then I block them.



  • I get international people fishing, usually from Vietnam, but not always. I think it's the last name. I never respond if I don't know the people, so I've no certainty about the motive--but can guess, I'm afraid. And I do have pretty severe privacy settings, but somehow a few get through. (They may in fact be friends of friends, as most Vietnamese friends of mine are apparently totally indiscriminate in who they befriend.)
  • I'm an admin on a history website,which has a linked facebook page. Two thirds of the messages we receive via Facebook are from men who seem to be under the impression that we are running some sort of dating site, despite the fact that all of the women featured are dead, and most have been dead for over a century.

    I am baffled by the mindset which makes a man think "Wow! That woman has a memorial stained glass window featuring St Margaret in Auchtermuchty Parish Church! That's so sexy! I bet she'd like to date me!"


This discussion has been closed.