NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] How to Blackmail with Facebook
How to Blackmail with Facebook
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000653.html
Greetings. In "Facebook's Devious Privacy Ploy"
( http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000652.html ), I strongly criticized
various aspects of Facebook's recent changes to their privacy settings
environment, particularly elements of their new recommended
defaults -- that I feel are nothing less than a privacy disaster.
But it's always useful to try find a silver lining even in the darkest
clouds, so today let's explore how the new recommended Facebook
privacy settings are in some ways the "gift that keeps on giving" --
and can be used to help fill your bank account with riches -- if
you're a criminal, that is.
To quote Gene Wilder as Leo Bloom in 1968's "The Producers":
"Let's assume, just for the moment, that you are a dishonest man."
How could you leverage Facebook's recent privacy changes toward your
goal of achieving true "money is honey" status?
The key is Facebook's new recommended default that makes user postings
("Posts by Me") available to everyone, in contrast to the earlier
essentially equivalent category of "Status and Links" -- which
defaulted to "Only Friends."
Recommended defaults are extremely powerful. It can be expected that
vast numbers of Facebook users, likely the majority over time, will
accept the new defaults and rarely if ever take advantage of the new
"per posting" privacy options that are now available.
As a bold crook, this plays directly to your advantage.
For your Facebook blackmail operation to blossom, you'll probably want
to concentrate on the vast bounty of posted photo albums that will be
open to public viewing, where previously they would likely have been
restricted only to any given Facebook user's friends. These photos
are gold to your criminal operation.
As we know, many Facebook users unwisely post a variety of
"compromising" photos on Facebook to share with their friends. These
often involve partying, drinking, and other potentially embarrassing
(or even illegal) activities. You can use these ingrained posting
habits -- combined with Facebook's new privacy changes -- to your
definite monetary advantage.
The technique is simplicity itself, but you'll need to get going now
for maximum payoff.
Simply troll around Facebook gathering up every potentially
embarrassing photo that you can find. Archive them carefully, along
with all other available Facebook information related to the
associated users. You can do this on a small scale and manually, or
on a larger scale via automated techniques.
Massive numbers of Facebook users will have inadvertently exposed such
materials to "Everyone" as a result of Facebook's new recommended
defaults. By collecting these photos and other compromising Facebook
items now, you'll be in a position to monetize them to your benefit
later, after these users have belatedly realized that exposing that
stuff so widely -- particularly those nasty photos -- was a really,
seriously bad idea.
Ah, but they're too late! You've already got 'em by the ... well, you
know what.
Now comes the fun part. Keep watch and note when users who previously
had exposed embarrassing materials suddenly change their Facebook
settings to clamp back down and limit access. Many of these Facebook
subscribers will be the patsies who'll end up buying you everything
that you've ever dreamed of.
The rest is obvious. You simply -- via various reasonably difficult
to trace communications channels -- offer a "service" to these
Facebook users to help prevent archived copies of those formerly
exposed photos and other goodies from falling into the hands of
boyfriends, girlfriends, spouses, current or potential employers, law
enforcement, and so on.
With a little luck, the bucks will come rolling in.
But as you count your ill-gotten gains, be sure to give thanks to
those good folks at Facebook who made it all possible -- when they
pushed their users into exposing to the world all those personal
goodies that are now so enriching your life.
Yep, there's still a lot of money to be made on the Web!
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@vortex.com
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
- People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, NNSquad
- Network Neutrality Squad - http://www.nnsquad.org
Founder, GCTIP - Global Coalition
for Transparent Internet Performance - http://www.gctip.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein