A new dating website, Lovely-Faces.com boasts of having about 250,000 searchable profile pictures of Facebook users that were extracted without permission.
Artist Paolo Cirio and media critic Alessandro Ludovic, extracted around a million profile information without permission. Then, using some special software selected around 250,000 of them and sorted them out by facial expression. The listed profile pictures are searchable by nationality, gender, and category like “funny”, “smug”, “climber”, “easy going” etc.
The duo explains their “project” on their website Face-to-Facebook.net:
“Facebook, an endlessly cool place for so many people, becomes at the same time a goldmine for identity theft and dating – unfortunately, without the user’s control. But that’s the very nature of Facebook and social media in general. If we start to play with the concepts of identity theft and dating, we should be able to unveil how fragile a virtual identity given to a proprietary platform can be. And how fragile enormous capitalization based on exploiting social systems can be.”
Regardless of what they are trying to prove, scraping profile info without permission cannot be justified.
Facebook’s expression is definitely not one of smiling. Facebook spokesman said “appropriate” action will be taken.
For the people listed in the Lovely-Faces.com, the duo says “”If your identity has been hurt by this website, just write to us and we’ll remove your data instantly. This website is a work of art and we’re committed to avoiding any related annoyances.”
Many people’s lives revolve around Facebook. They keep in touch with friends and family through the site. They meet new people and share information, like birthdays, phone numbers, and addresses. But the site is not entirely safe. In fact, if you are not careful, it can become a scary place.
Identity theft is rampant and this social networking site can be a crook’s heaven. Friends have access to some private information stored in the site. So indiscriminately accepting people as friends is almost like posting your personal details in a blog that can be read by the world.
Good for people who are careful about who gets their information. However, that is not the only way for thieves to steal your information. So, below are some tips to keep your information safe:
• Keep an antivirus and anti-malware software active and updated in your computer. Be sure to scan your computer often.
Many scammers can trick you into downloading viruses, Trojans, etc. which can be hidden inside applications that we download from the site. These hidden programs can retrieve private information stored in your computer (like credit card numbers).
• Use a browser that features an anti-phishing blacklist like Internet Explorer 8 or Mozilla Firefox 3.0.10 or higher. Phishing attacks are very difficult to detect without tools because they look like the real deal. These usually ask you to put your Facebook username and password so that they can get into your account.
• Change your password often and keep them to yourself.
• Read the site’s safety page (http://www.facebook.com/safety/) to get tips on how to further keep your information safe.
Keeping our information safe is not the sole responsibility of the government or the website. It starts with us. So, know how to protect yourself and your loved ones.
A new dating website, Lovely-Faces.com boasts of having about 250,000 searchable profile pictures of Facebook users that were extracted without permission.