Tripadvisor.ie accessing Facebook info

BsBox

So I was looking up accommodation in Spain, and I came across the site http://www.tripadvisor.ie/, and I noticed it knew my name and had a picture of me. It was accessing my Facebook information even though I hadn't agreed to anything.

They say they've partnered with Facebook in their FAQ, but I thought selling complete and personally identifiable information like that would be illegal.
I'm not sure I like the idea of random websites identifying me simple because I logged into Facebook...

Thoughts on it?

(Hope I placed this in the right thread)

Mr Simpson

As far as I know, they cant access any info from this, its just a tab (wrong term, I know nothing about web development) that shows you're logged in. It can then prompt you to share or post something to facebook. If you're worried about it, maybe make an enquiry with the Data Protection commisioner, as facebook are based in Dublin, theyre subject to our data protection laws.

28064212

Whereabouts on the site are they showing it? I'm logged in to Facebook at the moment, but when I go to tripadvisor, the only Facebook thing I see is a "Sign in with Facebook" option at the top of the screen

BrianD

BsBox wrote: »

So I was looking up accommodation in Spain, and I came across the site http://www.tripadvisor.ie/, and I noticed it knew my name and had a picture of me. It was accessing my Facebook information even though I hadn't agreed to anything.

They say they've partnered with Facebook in their FAQ, but I thought selling complete and personally identifiable information like that would be illegal.
I'm not sure I like the idea of random websites identifying me simple because I logged into Facebook...

Thoughts on it?

(Hope I placed this in the right thread)

There's a certainly amount of info that is available - your name, profile pic and some other basics. If you're logged in with Facebook in your browser if you go to the site they can personalise your experience showing what friends liked etc through social plugins.

Getting deeper information requires you to grant permissions to the web site so that they can access other information.

if you want to see what's publicly available from your profile use this URL

https://graph.facebook.com/YOURFACEBOOKID

where YOUR FACEBOOK ID is your id or if you have a vanity name use that.

BsBox

28064212 wrote: »

Whereabouts on the site are they showing it? I'm logged in to Facebook at the moment, but when I go to tripadvisor, the only Facebook thing I see is a "Sign in with Facebook" option at the top of the screen

It's coming up as a bar along the top of the page. Have you done something to disable sites using your FB info?

BsBox

mmcn90 wrote: »

As far as I know, they cant access any info from this, its just a tab (wrong term, I know nothing about web development) that shows you're logged in. It can then prompt you to share or post something to facebook. If you're worried about it, maybe make an enquiry with the Data Protection commisioner, as facebook are based in Dublin, theyre subject to our data protection laws.

I'm not so worried about it that I feel I need to contact the DPC, but I must admit it was a little troubling. I've obviously seen sites personalise some info using FB in the past, but I'd never seen them use my name, picture, and friends info without granting any permissions.

BrianD wrote: »

There's a certainly amount of info that is available - your name, profile pic and some other basics. If you're logged in with Facebook in your browser if you go to the site they can personalise your experience showing what friends liked etc through social plugins.

Getting deeper information requires you to grant permissions to the web site so that they can access other information.

if you want to see what's publicly available from your profile use this URL

https://graph.facebook.com/YOURFACEBOOKID

where YOUR FACEBOOK ID is your id or if you have a vanity name use that.

Cheers for the link!
I (naïvely) didn't realise how easily this info was open for sites to use. Makes me wish more people would move to the likes of Google+. As stupid as it sounds, I've a lot more faith in Google than I do in Facebook with my info.

Thoie

When I go there I just see:

{ "id": "MY ID", "name": "FULLNAME", "first_name": "FirstName", "last_name": "Surname", "username": "MyUsername", "gender": "MyGender", "locale": "en_GB" }

Am I doing it wrong, or does that mean that's all that's publicly available?

BsBox

Thoie wrote: »

When I go there I just see:

{ "id": "MY ID", "name": "FULLNAME", "first_name": "FirstName", "last_name": "Surname", "username": "MyUsername", "gender": "MyGender", "locale": "en_GB" }

Am I doing it wrong, or does that mean that's all that's publicly available?

That's all it's giving me too, although it had access to my photo and what friends had been on the site.

28064212

BsBox wrote: »

I'm not so worried about it that I feel I need to contact the DPC, but I must admit it was a little troubling. I've obviously seen sites personalise some info using FB in the past, but I'd never seen them use my name, picture, and friends info without granting any permissions.

Ah, here we go. Go to your Facebook settings => Privacy Settings => go down to "Ads, Apps and Websites" and click Edit Settings => go down to "Instant personalisation" and click Edit Settings => Uncheck the box.

There's more information about it here: http://www.facebook.com/instantpersonalization/. This part is noteworthy:

When you first arrive on a participating site, you will see a notification and a way to turn off the customised experience in one click

BrianD

BsBox wrote: »

That's all it's giving me too, although it had access to my photo and what friends had been on the site.

That's what is publicly available.

Where were you seeing friends activity? There are social plugins that can be used on sites but these are widgets and the web site wouldn't be accessing them. For example if you look at a Like box with Facepile on a web site you'll always see your friends who like it at the top of the pile.

biko

I don't have time to check right now but as suggested, it's probably a frame from facebook that will (if you're logged into FB) show some info.
Log out from FB and try again, it won't show this time.
Tripadvisor isn't using this info for themselves, it's used if you "like" articles and such.
And I don't think it'll show you name to others, you'll just be a number: "13 people liked this article".


Note, it's always a good idea to log out of facebook when you're done there.
Hacker attacks on your computer can gain access to your profile if you're logged in but on another site. This goes for any site really.

Mr Simpson

28064212 wrote: »

Ah, here we go. Go to your Facebook settings => Privacy Settings => go down to "Ads, Apps and Websites" and click Edit Settings => go down to "Instant personalisation" and click Edit Settings => Uncheck the box.

There's more information about it here: http://www.facebook.com/instantpersonalization/. This part is noteworthy:

I tried to do this, it then said instant personalisation wasn't available to me (I couldn't turn it off), despite the fact that it does everything that personalisation offers when I visit a partner website

28064212

mmcn90 wrote: »

I tried to do this, it then said instant personalisation wasn't available to me (I couldn't turn it off), despite the fact that it does everything that personalisation offers when I visit a partner website

Strange. Instant Personalisation isn't available to me either, but I don't see anything on TripAdvisor (even though I'm logged in to Facebook). Did you sign in to tripadvisor with Facebook by any chance? Can you go to one of the sites that you haven't been on before and see if it is turned on for you there?

BrianD

There is a link on Tripadvisor called how to switch off personalisation.

As it happens in a scenario like this it is generally you giving permissions to FB to allow Tripadvisor access your FB info.

Mr Simpson

Hmmm, no im logged in on a few of those sites, strange. Anyway, i'm not particularly bothered by it, just thought it was weird.