MIT graduate Oliver Yeh recently built a service called Stalkbook which he alleges allows you to stalk people on Facebook even if you're not friends with them on the social network. Yeh has a simple but malicious trick: he uses other Facebook users' credentials to view whoever's profile you want to stalk.
When I went to the site, typed in "Mark Zuckerberg," and clicked "Stalk," I was greeted with the following message: "Stalking is considered to be morally wrong. Why don't you try talking to the person instead." Stalkbook hasn't been released publicly, but Yeh has demoed it to select individuals.
In an interview with IEEE, Yeh explained in further detail how Stalkbook works:
So, the photo version works by whenever a person signs on to the application; not only does he reveal his or her own information but he also compromises all of his or her friends' information too. So for example, if I sign on to the site, then my friend Trevor would also be signed on to the site because I'm friends with Trevor. And because with my credentials, I can see Trevor's information. Now, everyone on the Internet can also see Trevor's information by using my credentials. And as more people sign up to Stalkbook, you get this network effect, in which you only need perhaps 10 pe... [Read more]
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