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Serious privacy issues on Pownce
You people need to fix this bug and have all of your Friend of a Friend pages removed from Google Cache ASAP. Below is how to find the personal information of each user and their friends. I already deleted my account and told all of my friends to do the same, but I am still able to pull up a Google Cache of my personal information.
http://pownce.com/username/foaf/
http://pownce.com/username/foaf/
I’m pissed off
3
people have this problem
I have this problem, too!
Tell me when someone solves it.
The more people who report this problem, the more it gets noticed.
The more people who report this problem, the more it gets noticed.
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Inappropriate?Hi,
FOAF will not display your birth date unless your privacy settings are set to allow everyone to see your age. In addition, it will only display your last name if you chose to enter a last name in Pownce. You always have the option to just enter a space in the last name field if you choose not to disclose your full name.1 Comment
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This solves the problem
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Last names are currently displayed on any public profile when you roll over a user's icon in the Friends list. Again, we do not require that you use your real last name and you can always enter a space in the last name field if you would prefer to use no last name at all. -
Inappropriate?I find it disturbing that you can get any users full name and date of birth if the user has selected to make their age public.
You do not need to log in at all to get this.
Yes, I could remove it.
The point is, I did NOT make my surname public, nor do I wish to make my Date of Birth public - my age... I don't mind.
I'm happy that a 'friend' can roll over my image when they are logged in and view my surname, but not anyone else.
The responses to this issue seem to be very nonchalant which surprises me.
I’m really annoyed that my 'privacy' is now 'public' despite the options
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Inappropriate?Why do you find it disturbing to find information you provided to a public profile being made public? If you have something to hide or a reason to desire such anonymity then you should be more careful with volunteering this data. And you should be aware that once you have published the data, it will be cached elsewhere by third party sites (not just Google) completely beyond Pownce's control.
I’m amused
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This solves the problem
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My pownce profile is NOT public and this is not about anonymity. It is just about making public those items which we desire to make public, and those we don't kept private.
There are some parts of my profile which are optionally made public, and this I have no issue with at all.
I did not provide my details to a public profile; it's supposed to be only for friends I connect to.
I did allow my Age to be shown publicly, (which I have subsequently removed) but not my Date of Birth. These are 2 different things; yes they are connected but are not the same.
And yes - of course any info I allow to be public will be cached elsewhere - this I have no problem with -
Inappropriate?It looks like Pownce has fixed part of this issue. The FOAF page now displays the first name and last initial, which is good, but it still displays the full birth year. A dedicated stalker or identity thieve can still use the full birth day to his advantage and honestly Pownce should not be displaying that information on its FOAF page when the users request that their birthdates not be displayed publicly.
I am completely unimpressed with the obtuseness of Pownce support here. I had a lengthy email conversation with Ariel that went nowhere and I wound up just giving up. If anyone wants to read it for a laugh, contact me at jcm267@hotmail.com and I can send it to you.
@Tom Martin
You should stop laughing and instead put your thinking cap on and do a google search for "trusted third party". Do you buy things from eBay? Paypal is a trusted third party for eBay users. Would you like it if you bought something off of eBay using PayPal and your credit card information was made public due to a glitch in PayPal's software? Obviously this Pownce issue wasn't quite as serious as that but it wasn't something to laugh at the victims over. Frankly, Tom, you're rude and not very bright.
I’m giving up. Pownce doesn't care about privacy.
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Inappropriate?If you go to http://pownce.com/settings/privacy/ , all users have the ability to hide their age and birth date.
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Inappropriate?Pownce's blatent disregard for their user's data privacy is seriously troubling. I can't believe they actually think that displaying publicly data users have elected to display only to friends is defensible on any level.
I’m horrified
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Inappropriate?Hi V,
If you have elected to show your data to only your friends, it *will* only be displayed to your friends and not publicly. Again, if you go to http://pownce.com/settings/privacy/ and select your data to only be shown to friends or private, we honor that and don't show it publicly.1 Comment Add a comment
This solves the problem
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Hi Anon,
It did always work that way in regards to your age/DOB. As said above in this thread, you're never required to use your actual last name, and if you want no last name at all, you can enter a space instead.
We did acknowledge that this problem was raised in this thread in regards to FOAF, so Leah chose to make only the first initial of the last name show in FOAF after we discussed this internally. However, your last name will still display on parts of the site if you disclose it in the Last Name field (e.g. replying to public notes). This is why I can't address that the larger concern of displaying the last name field is "fixed".
Again, the only and best way to keep your last name private is to elect to either not use your real last name, enter an initial instead of your last name, or enter a space instead of your last name. We do not require you to give us your real last name at any time, so if you would like for your last name to not be public, please don't use it. -
Inappropriate?I just wanted to chime in about my experience with FOAF on Pownce. I do a regular "vanity google" via Google Alerts to see what's out there on me. One day I pulled up an XML type document with my name and birth date along with several other people's similar info. I was alarmed.
While I understood what FOAF was after a Google, initially my reaction was anger in that I didn't check box a "share my info with FOAF". I also realized this kind of takes the winds out FOAF's sails, but at least some form of better dialog with your users about how this data is published with the social web would be transparent and helpful.
When users fill out their details (private profile or not) often it's just instinct to fill in all the fields because they are eager to use the service and certainly aren't thinking about FOAF (most have no idea what it is). I think Pownce should have a checkbox whether or not to share this data and what data to put out there on FOAF.1 Comment Add a comment
This solves the problem
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Hi Mike,
Definitely some good food for thought on this - I appreciate you sharing your thoughts on how to frame this better! -
Inappropriate?Disappointing to see Pownce has just repeated their complete ignorance of user's data privacy by displaying Fire Eagle location information on public profiles even where the users have chosen to conceal their location information from the public, within the privacy settings.
Disappointing, but not much of a surprise. -
Inappropriate?jcm267 doesn't want his public profile available because he's a government employee. He's a paid CENTCOM blogger who doesn't want the dirt getting out about him, or people finding out where he lives.
I’m pissed off at CENTCOM
