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theharmonyguy.com (2012)

About theharmonyguy.com (a.k.a. Social Hacking)

I’m Joey Tyson, and this is a blog where I post links and commentary related mostly to online privacy and security, particularly with social networking. I started writing here in late 2007 under the pseudonym “theharmonyguy” after discovering a few simple vulnerabilities on some popular websites. That led to a variety of research involving Facebook apps and deeper interest in a variety of questions about online privacy.

After finishing a graduate degree in mathematics from Wake Forest University in 2009, I ended up working at Gemini Security Solutions in Virginia as an information security engineer. In 2012, I joined Facebook’s product security team with a particular focus on privacy issues.

I became an active user of Twitter after grad school, primarily sharing privacy and security information, and over time, I invested less in long-form blogging. Eventually, I retired my original blog (which is archived here) and published this new version, which combines shorter snippets and external links with more detailed articles.

Various media outlets and security professionals have cited my research or commentary; some examples are linked below in reverse chronological order. I was also named Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year” in 2006.