Uh-Oh

From Bruce Schneier, we find that all that anonymous networking data isn't so anonymous after all . . .

Computer scientists Arvind Narayanan and Dr Vitaly Shmatikov, from the University of Texas at Austin, developed the algorithm which turned the anonymous data back into names and addresses.

The data sets are usually stripped of personally identifiable information, such as names, before it is sold to marketing companies or researchers keen to plumb it for useful information.

Before now, it was thought sufficient to remove this data to make sure that the true identities of subjects could not be reconstructed.

The algorithm developed by the pair looks at relationships between all the members of a social network -- not just the immediate friends that members of these sites connect to.

Social graphs from Twitter, Flickr and Live Journal were used in the research.

The pair found that one third of those who are on both Flickr and Twitter can be identified from the completely anonymous Twitter graph. This is despite the fact that the overlap of members between the two services is thought to be about 15%.

The researchers suggest that as social network sites become more heavily used, then people will find it increasingly difficult to maintain a veil of anonymity.

If it's privacy you're after, just stay off the freakin' Internet.

Privacy Violations

Five California Facebook users are suing Facebook, claiming that Facebook violated their privacy by allowing them to use Facebook.

The list of offenses against the aggrieved is truly egregious. Take the plight of “accomplished actress” [redacted]. After posting her photos to Facebook, [redacted] was quite surprised to discover her photos had been posted to Facebook. Outraged, she’s charging the social network for disseminating her “digital images… without her consent, knowledge, or compensation.”

. . . "This suit is in no way a publicity stunt to get my client’s image in front of millions of hormone-crazed geeks who otherwise would never have heard of her,” [redacted's] manager, [also redacted], did not actually say.

Also among the plaintiffs is 11-year-old Xavier [redacted]., whose parents are suing Facebook for violating the boy’s medical privacy by allowing him to post “I have swine flu” on his wall. They removed the posting and now demand to know what Facebook has done with it. (It’s not clear whether Xavier had swine flu, but his mother and father apparently did contract a severe case of parentus stupidococcus.) . . .