Jan. 23, 2010

Posted by theharmonyguy | 3 comments

In Defense of Walled Gardens

It’s easy to assume that when it comes to data and software development, “open” is always better than “closed.” We’ve seen an explosion of open source software, praised companies for supporting open standards, and breathlessly tracked products with “open” in their name, from OpenID to OpenSocial. “Closed” has become the scarlet letter of the Internet, at times expressed by the censure...

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Jan. 21, 2010

Posted by theharmonyguy | 1 comment

Facebook Applications are Now Even More Valuable Hacking Targets

I’ve demonstrated countless times over the past year that cross-site scripting vulnerabilities in Facebook applications can be exploited to make Facebook API requests on behalf of the application. This type of attack, which I called a FAXX hack, enables one to not only post links to Facebook for viral effects but also harvest a wealth of information on victimized users along the way, such as name, date of birth, interests, family members,...

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Jan. 1, 2010

Posted by theharmonyguy | 16 comments

Backup or Export Your Facebook Account

Update This post has been superseded by “An Updated Guide to Backing up or Exporting Your Facebook.” Please refer to the new post for more current instructions and disregard the information below. Original Post Last update: 4 Jan 2010, 4:56PM EST Introduction Over the last several years, I’ve seen several technology analysts criticize Facebook for not giving users greater control over their data. Many have commented that while...

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Dec. 28, 2009

Posted by theharmonyguy | 3

10 Basic Concepts of Facebook Privacy

Your name, your profile picture, your gender, your current city, the networks...

Dec. 24, 2009

Posted by theharmonyguy | 19

Easily View Hidden Facebook Friend Lists

Amid all the festivities of the Christmas season, the time off from other...

Dec. 19, 2009

Posted by theharmonyguy | 3

Months Later, Old Facebook Privacy Probl...

I’ve tried. I’ve tried to give Facebook the benefit of the doubt....

Dec. 19, 2009

Posted by theharmonyguy | 2

Facebook Knows What You Did Last Summer

Pardon the creative title. In working on accessing Facebook photo albums...