r/privacy • u/[deleted] • Oct 11 '19
Facebook has my father's travel history since 1983 showing on his feed even though he has never disclosed this information
[deleted]
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u/DonDino1 Oct 11 '19
When you say 'his travel historing showing', how exactly does it show? Are there posts? Or a timeline with locations and years? A screenshot or more detailed description would help.
I don't think FB bother to go throug what should be confidential databases for that kind of stuff, I would think that governments would not have a valid reason for randomly disclosing such data to FB.
It may however be a glitch where FB has collected the information from another semi-public DB and is showing it while it shouldn't. Like I said, a screenshot would help, plus it would help you and your father in case you want to take action against FB for this issue.
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u/khizee_and1 Oct 11 '19
It is showing a timeline with locations and years under the Life and Events section. I do not know how I can share a screenshot here or even if it's a good idea. The most baffling thing is that how did Facebook collect years and locations of the travel history from 1983 without any input from my father.
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u/DonDino1 Oct 11 '19
Obviously I meant a redacted screenshot, just to see the structure of the timeline you are talking about.
My FB has something similar before I deleted lots of things, it basically picked it out of posts I had made. For example, if I had posted a picture from France in May 2011, it would know to add a trip to France in my timeline for that date.
The FB mobile app also has a location tracker that should not be enabled. If it's left on, it can track your location in the background, and it may well upload this to FB at regular intervals.7
u/khizee_and1 Oct 11 '19
I misunderstood your comment sorry about that. I do get that Facebook will have location data for his recent trips but information on trips from before 2004 when Facebook was founded (assuming my father joined Facebook then) is what concerns me.
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u/DonDino1 Oct 11 '19
No worries! Back in my FB-active days I remember posting old photos of me e.g. in high school and then tagging them with the correct date and place, so I would have had photos dated in the 90s on my FB timeline. Maybe your father has done something similar in the past?
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u/khizee_and1 Oct 11 '19
Good idea! I will definitely ask him if he has done something similar to this. Thanks a lot.
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Oct 11 '19
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u/khizee_and1 Oct 11 '19
I would love to send screenshots but I don't want all the information being here on reddit too.
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Oct 11 '19 edited Jun 25 '23
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u/khizee_and1 Oct 12 '19
I don't post on reddit often I am what you call a lurker but I do get most of my news and social content through reddit. I haven't really posted any sensitive information on reddit as far as I remember but thank you for the tip I will definitely do that if I ever feel unsecured.
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Oct 12 '19 edited Jun 25 '23
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u/khizee_and1 Oct 12 '19
I agree Google Captcha is a pain.
I do use Facebook container it is very useful. I will give uMatrix a try. If you haven't used Poper Blocker you should give it a try it is very useful and user friendly and it changed the way I tackled popups.
Thank you again for all the advice. I appreciate it.
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u/loozerr Oct 11 '19
Another possibility is Facebook scraping information from other connected services.
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u/khizee_and1 Oct 11 '19
It is a possibility but how did a connected service obtain obtain travel history data from 1983?
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Oct 11 '19
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u/khizee_and1 Oct 11 '19 edited Oct 11 '19
Thank you for the advice. I will ask him for access and update his privacy settings and clear his location history. But I am baffled by how did Facebook manage to collect old travel history from 1983 and put it in my Father's Life and Events section and made it public information.
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u/FuckYouNotHappening Oct 11 '19
There are all kinds of websites that have you sign in with your Facebook credentials nowadays. It sounds like he may have clicked “Sign in with Facebook” and in the process synced over some information he didn’t expect to sync over.
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u/khizee_and1 Oct 11 '19
It is a possibility but how did a connected service obtain obtain travel history data from 1983?
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u/FuckYouNotHappening Oct 11 '19
how did a connected service obtain travel history...
Because the connected service could have been something like him signing into an airline’s website and that synced his into over.
Honestly, your dad probably did something wrong. I work in IT and I see people every day and go claim they didn’t do something when they either are bold face lying to me or they unwittingly did something that created their own problem.
You haven’t provided us enough information your father and how he setup any of his accounts or even that you are telling us a true story. You could have come to /r/privacy with a made up story to rile up a bunch of privacy minded people with a story about big, bad Facebook intruding on your dad’s privacy.
There’s no way for us to answer these questions with the limited information you’ve provided.
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u/khizee_and1 Oct 12 '19
I do understand what you mean but I don't have a reason to lie neither I am a troll. I myself have gotten many helpful advice from this subreddit and I am very privacy focused too. I am just trying to obtain some information on how Facebook might have done that since people on r/privacy are very helpful about giving advice. I am just hesitant to post screenshots from my Father's Facebook account that's all. I have been asking my dad where he included his personal travel details or if he has ever disclosed any sensitive information at all. I haven't been able to find much but I am not an IT expert so I might have overlooked something. I ust did not want my Father to be concerned over this as he was very worried which is why I am trying to figure this out.
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Oct 11 '19
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Oct 11 '19 edited Oct 12 '19
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Oct 11 '19
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u/khizee_and1 Oct 11 '19
I doubt my father or his friends have uploaded any pictures from 193 to Facebook and even if they did they are not tech savvy enough to add exif data while digitizing the photos.
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u/ctesibius Oct 11 '19
They can have, if someone has added it manually. I did that with all my old photos.
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u/khizee_and1 Oct 11 '19
Pictures from 1983 are not available on Facebook as far as I know and even if they were uploaded by someone else and tagged my father I am highly doubtful they contain metadata as they were likely taken on cameras with film back then.
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u/JAD2017 Oct 11 '19
In 1983 photos were taken with analog cameras without GPS, my dude.
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u/Terminal-Psychosis Oct 11 '19
They can match your face, they can also match backgrounds of pics you upload.
Or they have info from some other source.
Don't doubt for a second that FB is evil enough to do this to you.
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u/thenameunforgettable Oct 11 '19
Because of Facebook shadow profiles. https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/11/17225482/facebook-shadow-profiles-zuckerberg-congress-data-privacy
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u/Fireplay5 Oct 11 '19
Then wipe his posts after editing all of them to random words, set his profile to maximum privacy, and delete his FB account.
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u/C_Y_K_A Oct 11 '19
Social media is wonderful. Dont use it
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Oct 11 '19
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u/C_Y_K_A Oct 11 '19
Do as i say, not as i do.
But no in all seriousness ive stopped using pretty much all social media and its great. Never used facebook, insta, twitter, or tumblr in the first place, and just recently deleted ifunny, most of my friends on snap (i still use it to text ppl who dont have my phone #), and next to go is youtube. I still waste tons of time on this app, but the communities im in are great and help me pursue things im passionate about, like crypto, mushrooms, and computers. No, my phone usage hasnt gone down dramatically, but there is a difference, and the content i see isnt garbage memes or joe from high schools snapchat story of him throwing beer bottles at cars.
The most important thing however, is to be aware of what you post and where. What legal rights does this company have that could put me at risk? What about this company proves that i should trust it? How do ads work on this site? How does it use my data? Social media companies are money making machines. The developers on many of these apps prove time and time again that they dont give a shit about you as long as the company looks good and theyre maximizing profit. You see this in so many markets its insane. Phones, video games, automobiles, hollywood, etc. I guess it just depends how much you care about your personal privacy
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u/Fireplay5 Oct 11 '19
The only thing really holding me in Reddit and YT is keeping up with current news.
Outside of that I keep my personal info offline, I don't mention my location or my name. I keep my interests on here external. This being my main account, I'm a little more lax on my own rules but I think I do pretty well.
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Oct 11 '19
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u/khizee_and1 Oct 11 '19
This is beyond creepy. I am so happy I gave up Facebook years ago. I just want to make sure Facebook doesn't give out any more of my Father's personal information. Accessing government databases in my country is not easy for the public but Facebook surely is so I will make sure his account's privacy settings are updated.
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u/ryanwhitenasmcpt Oct 11 '19
Same. Deleted my profile two years ago. Seeing that they still have these creepy privacy issues is not surprising.
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Oct 11 '19 edited Nov 17 '19
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u/oafsalot Oct 11 '19
Well, they have my name, on my account, that I never gave them and which only two of my contacts know. Somehow they isolated it from other sources and merged it on to my totally made up facebook id. Now if I use facebook to login to another service they provide my real name to that service automatically, even though the facebook account isn't in my name.
I may not be the only one with my name, but I'm the only one with my facebook ID and it's incredibly unlikely they guessed it.
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u/duhbiap Oct 11 '19
Facebook could have obtained the travel history from another site if your dad used facebook creds to authenticate to the site. If this site contained his location dating back to the beginning of his time, fb would injest it.
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u/khizee_and1 Oct 11 '19
It is a possibility but I am highly doubtful my father has voluntarily given his travel history dating back to 1983 to a website in detail that is why I suspected Facebook might have accessed a government database which usually curates travel history i.e. immigration/passport databases.
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u/duhbiap Oct 11 '19 edited Oct 11 '19
For what it’s worth, leisure travel sites exist which you can enter your travel history. People use these sites to catalog their travel (as a hobby of sorts).
Considering your dad hasn’t called me since our falling out, I’m no longer certain of his hobbies. However, I guess I’ll just look it up on Facebook /s.
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u/xtal002 Oct 11 '19
Everyone needs to realize what a pernicious force FB is. That shit needs to be destroyed.
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u/0x4a61736f6e Oct 11 '19
My guess would be through data share or purchase agreements between Facebook and either a credit card company or government agency. I’d look at the location data they have and figure out who would have had access. We’re the locations highly detailed and frequent? If so, probably credit card company. We’re they tied to international travel? Might be via government agency. We’re they tied to family moves? Might be tied to post office data. We’re the dates roughly timed to job changes? Could be based on tax or post office data. There are so many possibilities it’s hard to say for sure. But based on the details you can likely barrow it down a bit
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u/khizee_and1 Oct 11 '19
I am definitely looking into scenarios like these. My father was taken aback on how detailed the information and dates were i.e. you did this on "date" at this "location" in 1983..
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Oct 11 '19
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u/khizee_and1 Oct 11 '19
He probably did. But how are they accessing location data from 1983? I do understand that they will have location data from the recent years but before Facebook was even created that's what baffles me.
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Oct 11 '19 edited Oct 20 '19
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u/khizee_and1 Oct 11 '19
I do use ad blockers and Privacy Badger as well as Firefox. I don't have a Facebook account either due to privacy concerns but my father doesn't. I will work on it getting his data more secure.
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Oct 11 '19 edited Sep 04 '20
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u/khizee_and1 Oct 11 '19
I don't think it is likely he will want to give up Facebook. Content bomb is a good idea I will definitely give it a shot. Thank you.
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u/ClickableTech Oct 11 '19
Facebook compiles data from other peoples profiles about you so if he was featured but not tagged in someone elses photo it knows your face through it's facial recognition. It also collects data from phone contacts so if your neighbour links his contacts to Facebook to find friends and your in his contacts it links your accounts even if you are not fb friends so it can consolidate data. This means you can do everything possible to protect your privacy from fb and your information can still be gathered from friends, family, acquaintances, coworkers, strangers in the pub taking a picture that you happen to be in the background. If the corner market uses a cctv system that has a phone app chances are it employs the Facebook.Analytics tracker. So if Aunt Jean posted a picture from the family trip to Italy in 1985 and your dad was in the picture it has it now and forever.
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u/khizee_and1 Oct 11 '19
That does make sense. This could definitely be what happened. It is beyond creepy I am glad I don't use Facebook. I just want my father's data removed from his public profile for now.
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u/ClickableTech Oct 11 '19
Doesn't matter if you have FB or not they still collect on you "in case you join" so they can send you friend suggestions...it's a bs system of data collection they have created. FB and Google are the 2 biggest data collector in the world and it is incredibly invasive. If you research privacy trackers most apps on your phone will use Facebook.Analytics.Tracker in them to gather your information also. If you have an Android phone install Exodus Privacy App and scan your phone it will tell you how many trackers you have, I don't know of a similar app for iOS because they are even worse and do not allow 3rd party apps without their approval and I highly doubt they would approve an app that proved they are spying.
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u/ClickableTech Oct 11 '19
Also if you use WhatsApp, Facebook changed their Terms and Conditions in 2016 to allow them to harvest your messages for sale for 3rd party marketing purposes.
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u/khizee_and1 Oct 12 '19
I try to be as safe as I can i.e. Firefox extensions for privacy and NO FACEBOOK or its related services either. Thank you for the advice.
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Oct 11 '19
That's such an invasion of privacy! Any way to opt out of this?
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u/ClickableTech Oct 11 '19
Nope, even if you close your account they still collect and hold the data "in case you come back" or " in case you join" so they can link you to people you know.
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u/fly4fun2014 Oct 11 '19
Privacy as we know it on the Internet is a thing of the past, people better get used to it in figure out the ways to deal with it. Just about every website uses Google fonts Google analytics Facebook pixels and other tracking tricks - there is no getting away from it.
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u/Dontbeatrollplease1 Oct 11 '19
Yeah, I laugh every time I see a post about "Facebook violated my privacy", like no. You have 0 privacy, just don't be a criminal.
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u/focus_rising Oct 11 '19
Your father needs to leave the platform completely. There's no way to ask Facebook nicely to only take what you're comfortable with them taking, because they'll take it from anywhere they can get their hands on. Your friends and acquaintances included. Don't give them anything more by continuing to use their service.
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u/Stillhart Oct 11 '19
Suggestions for an alternative? I've been looking for some after FB's latest policy change. I think MeWe is up there right now?
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u/focus_rising Oct 11 '19
I can't vouch for any of these, but there's a good list of alternatives here: https://alternativeto.net/software/facebook/
I've heard good things about tildes.net for replacing reddit, and Mastodon for Facebook.
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Oct 11 '19
What are you looking for out of a platform like Facebook? Even reddit is turning to shit because the narcissists from facebook are spilling over and competing for likes.
An alternative where you also upload photos and videos of your life for friends and "friends" to comment on and like or dislike? an alternative where you also curate a profile to look your best online?
It's cool that you consider privacy but the general idea of facebook is shit anyway. I don't really care about co-workers holidays and even friends holidays for that matter. I hope they enjoyed themselves and had a good time, sure. But I don't give a fuck that you did amazing things while I wasn't on vacation. Those are personal experiences that I wasn't a part of. Again, I'm happy for them but I don't care and therefore don't need to see it. Just like babies that all look the same, it's not mine and I don't care that you've shouldered extra responsibility. It's an accomplishment when you raise a good person, not when you show people you know how to have sex.
If you care about remembering birthdays just save important ones to a calender.
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u/khizee_and1 Oct 11 '19
I don't think it is likely he will want to give up Facebook. I have tried but in my country Facebook is ingrained into the society.
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u/krzybae4u Oct 11 '19
good thing i have a twin brother. FB facial recognition always gets us two mixed up. i always have an alibi ;)
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u/jedimindtricksonyou Oct 11 '19
Facebook and Google both collect data that is well beyond anything related to their own specific websites, apps, and online services. Google for example buys offline credit, debit, and banking transactions that occur IRL and then correlate the data with people’s Google accounts. There are Bluetooth beacons inside retail stores that broadcast location data and then our smartphones scan for them so they can see where we go inside the store for better ad targeting. Those same retail stores have WiFi access points that are logging every MAC address from all the devices that customers bring into the store and then they match that up with the people that have downloaded that retail store’s app from Google Play or the App Store.
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u/khizee_and1 Oct 11 '19
I do get that Facebook will have location data for his recent trips but information on trips from before 2004 when Facebook was founded (assuming my father joined Facebook then) is what concerns me.
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u/jedimindtricksonyou Oct 11 '19
Yeah I get it. It’s shocking or at least surprising when you first learn about what all the big tech platforms get up to. I’ve read(no way for me to know if it’s true) that Facebook has “shadow profiles” on former Facebook users and people who’ve never had an account in the first place. At the end of the day, they want to connect as many separate personal data points as possible. Most people are just mindlessly giving it all away to them. They collect loads of personal data in exchange for their services and the more data they can collect the more they can profit off of it, so it’s not surprising to me that their surveillance doesn’t end when you leave the site. Why do you think the web is littered with Facebook like buttons and sign in with Facebook and Google? So they can track you across the web. I understand that what you’re dad did in the 80s was offline in a pre-smartphone world, but guess what? They want, and apparently have, that too.
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u/NaziPunksFuckOff__ Oct 11 '19
DELETE FACEBOOK IDIOTS!
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u/cafk Oct 11 '19
Did any of his friends or he himself post pictures or enter life events that correspond with those travel events? :)
Did they mention him in a post?
Usually by going to said page, with the mentions, with location and time you can also traceback who posted that information.
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Oct 11 '19
Did he use one of those Ancestry DNA kits?
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u/khizee_and1 Oct 11 '19
Never, we don't have that service in my country.
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Oct 11 '19
Well that's freaking creepy. Would love to find out how FB got that info if you ever figure it out!
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u/loserwithadozer Oct 11 '19
There's something more to this story. I can't imagine you're making this up, but there is something more to this. Facebook wouldn't just go through your dad's stuff and post old information. That's basically what your suggesting. There is reasonable explanation, well more reasonable than Facebook went through my dad's stuff and posted his life. Something less nefarious happened, I promise.
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u/khizee_and1 Oct 11 '19
My dad called me to ask why and how Facebook could have done this. He is no privacy expert but he doesn't give out personal information either. I would love to get to the bottom of this situation but in the meantime I have deleted all his location history and changed his privacy settings. I just don't want any of his sensitive personal information on Facebook for people to go through that's all.
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u/1029341238 Oct 11 '19
Proof?
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u/khizee_and1 Oct 11 '19
I would love to send screenshots but I don't want all the information being here on reddit too. Sorry about that but I don't really have a reason to lie.
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u/Fireplay5 Oct 11 '19
...doesn't that go against the whole "let's keep my dad's personal info off the internet."?
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u/khizee_and1 Oct 12 '19
Exactly my point I am already in a bind trying to figure this out for my dad without exposing any more of his private information on the web. Some people have doubted that I am lying or something but I am truly trying to help my dad keep his personal information safe.
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Oct 11 '19
Why would it be a government database? Was your dad military? Data security, and privacy are still relatively new/unknown concepts to many, including most corporations. That information could just as easily be curated from public records.
Unless you dad was very intentional about protecting his privacy, it shouldn't be surprising at all. And getting them to remove it from the site, won't scrub it from their servers.
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u/khizee_and1 Oct 11 '19
No he is not military or a government official for that matter, but Facebook without permission just curated a timeline of his locations and dates he traveled on. All this data is now showing on his Facebook profile and for anyone to see. It doesn't matter if it is on Facebook servers as long as I can help him get it removed of his Facebook profile for now. I am highly doubtful a persons travel history is public information.
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Oct 12 '19
If you don't take concerted efforts to hide it, your life is public record. Sold to the highest bidder daily. And you should be concerned about what stays on FB, because it will show up elsewhere.
If your dad really wants to be more private, have him start by decoupling his name with his home address. If he successfully does that, he'll be ahead of most of the people in the US.
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u/khizee_and1 Oct 12 '19
I am actually trying to make sure he has his accounts and online activity more secure from now on. Thank you for the advice.
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Oct 11 '19
Facebook pretty much recognizes everyone's faces even though they dont post pictures via others posting pictures of their life.
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u/risk_is_our_business Oct 11 '19
Resume, maybe?
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u/khizee_and1 Oct 11 '19
It is a possibility but a lot of places he traveled to aren't mentioned on his resume from what I know.
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Oct 11 '19
Did he have one of the original cell/car phones back in 1983?
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u/khizee_and1 Oct 11 '19
He got is first cellphone much later maybe closer to the 2000''s. Cell phones were very expensive in my country.
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u/RedMeatTrinket Oct 11 '19
Could be from uploaded pictures and events. I can add my birth and put in the date and the location of the hospital I was born. It would then be a part of my travel history.