Recently, Facebook announced the ‘Facebook Graph Search’, a beta project allowing better search of information stored in Facebook. In general, there are two ways to get information on Facebook: news feed and timeline. Users view news feed to see a broad overview of current activity for all the people and pages they are following. Visiting a specific person’s timeline allows user to view all the updates associate to that person. Facebook Graph Search provides a third way to obtain information. In the one hand, some people think that they will be able to find people with certain interests, and/or find information about people who like certain things. It will give clearer and better result when searching as well. In the other hand, some believe that this project may intervene users’ personal details and it can be a great tool for stalkers and scammers. I will list both advantages and disadvantages of Facebook Graph Search below.
Pros:
- Individuals can use this feature to find things they like or find people with similar interests.
- It offers a new opportunity for marketers, allowing them to see how likes and interests are related, and what are common trends so that they can meet the demands of users or consumers.
- Graph Search allows users to search based on location. Examples include “places where Exeter graduates work”.
- Photo search is included in Graph Search. You can search any pictures by just typing key words. Then, Facebook Graph Search will bring up photos pertaining to the search.
Cons:
- The most significant disadvantage seems to be the issue of privacy. Searchers can see individuals’ tastes and interests, which can be seen as intervening their personal information
- Facebook’s default search provider is currently Bing, meaning that if the tool is unable to find the search, Bing will do the job instead.
In what ways could this tool be used for data mining? First of all, data mining is the process of analyzing data from different perspectives and summarizing it into useful information. Some independent reports that the program cracks open Facebook’s warehouse of personal information to allow searching and data-mining on a large portion of Facebook’s 1 billion users. This means that users who set their profiles to “public” are about to be exposed to their largest audience ever. Usually, a phisher or spammer collects a couple hundred email addresses, send their spams and they are hoping that those who get it have an interest in what the email is about. With this tool, it gives a malicious person the ability to figure out whom to target with a particular message because they know their interests. Moreover, attackers can take that list of companies on Facebook, refine it and find out people who like to eat here, or have a particular hobby and perform multiple attacks against a company by refining the victims list and develop phishing, phone or other attacks based on the interests of those people. This sounds hazardous, but as we all know that every coins have two sides, therefore, the tool can put users at a advantage position too, for example, legal industry. Generally speaking, a legal firm can utilise the Facebook Graph Search to target its clients or even recruiting graduated law students for small firms. The firm can see the information that meet the requirements. This tool provides another way to advertise a legal industry in order to hire effective staffs and look at what are people's demands at present so that it can improve the firm to be able to help the society.
In my opinion, I tend to believe that the Graph Search would be harmful to Facebook users, despite the fact that privacy is still retained. Because it is only a beta version, how could everyone trust that all their personal information will be securely protected. Currently, scammers are increasing everyday, trying to lure people, getting money without doing tiring work. As I mentioned above that it is very easy to obtain individuals' details, which can lead to the worst-case-scenairo that a person can be stalked anytime, especially at night if he/she check-in on Facebook where they are now because most of us do not aware danger in the society. Thus, I do not support for the use of Facebook Graph Search.
Resources
http://www.moomumedia.com/the-pros-and-cons-of-the-facebook-social-graph-2977/
http://wildhairmedia.com/2013/01/21/pros-and-cons-of-facebook-graph-search/
http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty/jason.frand/teacher/technologies/palace/datamining.htm
http://www.thenation.com/blog/172459/why-graph-search-could-be-facebooks-largest-privacy-invasion-ever#
http://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/facebook-graph-search-mines-potentially-rich-data-phishers-attackers-012813
Pros:
- Individuals can use this feature to find things they like or find people with similar interests.
- It offers a new opportunity for marketers, allowing them to see how likes and interests are related, and what are common trends so that they can meet the demands of users or consumers.
- Graph Search allows users to search based on location. Examples include “places where Exeter graduates work”.
- Photo search is included in Graph Search. You can search any pictures by just typing key words. Then, Facebook Graph Search will bring up photos pertaining to the search.
Cons:
- The most significant disadvantage seems to be the issue of privacy. Searchers can see individuals’ tastes and interests, which can be seen as intervening their personal information
- Facebook’s default search provider is currently Bing, meaning that if the tool is unable to find the search, Bing will do the job instead.
In what ways could this tool be used for data mining? First of all, data mining is the process of analyzing data from different perspectives and summarizing it into useful information. Some independent reports that the program cracks open Facebook’s warehouse of personal information to allow searching and data-mining on a large portion of Facebook’s 1 billion users. This means that users who set their profiles to “public” are about to be exposed to their largest audience ever. Usually, a phisher or spammer collects a couple hundred email addresses, send their spams and they are hoping that those who get it have an interest in what the email is about. With this tool, it gives a malicious person the ability to figure out whom to target with a particular message because they know their interests. Moreover, attackers can take that list of companies on Facebook, refine it and find out people who like to eat here, or have a particular hobby and perform multiple attacks against a company by refining the victims list and develop phishing, phone or other attacks based on the interests of those people. This sounds hazardous, but as we all know that every coins have two sides, therefore, the tool can put users at a advantage position too, for example, legal industry. Generally speaking, a legal firm can utilise the Facebook Graph Search to target its clients or even recruiting graduated law students for small firms. The firm can see the information that meet the requirements. This tool provides another way to advertise a legal industry in order to hire effective staffs and look at what are people's demands at present so that it can improve the firm to be able to help the society.
In my opinion, I tend to believe that the Graph Search would be harmful to Facebook users, despite the fact that privacy is still retained. Because it is only a beta version, how could everyone trust that all their personal information will be securely protected. Currently, scammers are increasing everyday, trying to lure people, getting money without doing tiring work. As I mentioned above that it is very easy to obtain individuals' details, which can lead to the worst-case-scenairo that a person can be stalked anytime, especially at night if he/she check-in on Facebook where they are now because most of us do not aware danger in the society. Thus, I do not support for the use of Facebook Graph Search.
Resources
http://www.moomumedia.com/the-pros-and-cons-of-the-facebook-social-graph-2977/
http://wildhairmedia.com/2013/01/21/pros-and-cons-of-facebook-graph-search/
http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty/jason.frand/teacher/technologies/palace/datamining.htm
http://www.thenation.com/blog/172459/why-graph-search-could-be-facebooks-largest-privacy-invasion-ever#
http://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/facebook-graph-search-mines-potentially-rich-data-phishers-attackers-012813
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