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Openbook: Search public Facebook updates without logging in

You do know your Facebook wall updates are publicly searchable, don’t you? Well, if you don’t, there is a new site that shows you how scary and embarrassing the situation is.

openbookWhen you search on Facebook there is a “Posts By Everyone” search feature that reveals updates from people who haven’t set their privacy options right, either by choice or by ignorance, thereby sharing materials for the entire world to see.

Openbook allows you to conduct the same search but without logging into Facebook at all. The idea is to make people aware how much they are sharing with the world. To illustrate this point when you go to Openbook the site by default shows search results for “cheated test” – a potentially embarrassing update. There are more, such as “rectal exam”, “I hate my boss” and “just had sex”.

Openbook draws attention to the information Facebook makes public about its users via its search API. Facebook exposed this service on April 21st, 2010.

Our goal is to get Facebook to restore the privacy of this information, so that this website and others like it no longer work.

Related:
Facebook’s privacy policy is longer than the United States Constitution
A timeline of Facebook's changing Privacy Policy
Find what people are sharing on Facebook

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Comments

  1. AnonymousAugust 17, 2011 at 3:33 AM

    Another good facebook search engine and facebook trend finder is http://www.topicstatus.com

    You can search facebook without logging in and find trends to look at and the latest news on the trends. neat site.

    ReplyDelete

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