Open Source App Combats Facebook's Ever-changing Privacy

May 18, 2010

ReclaimPrivacy.org works to tighten security.

In news that will surely make our own Rikki Kite very happy, a pair of open source Web applications have been created to fight back against Facebook's recent redefinition of privacy. ReclaimPrivacy.org allows for simple, quick identification of where your Facebook account exposes or shares your personal information to the Internet at large.

Running the scan requires the user to make a bookmark from the reclaimprivacy.org site, open Facebook and sign into the Facebook account in question, and then click the button of the ReclaimPrivacy.org bookmark just created. The scanner runs in-browser and scans the following criteria:

  • Instant personalization, which share information with non-Facebook sites
  • Personal information, including bio and Favorite Quotations.
  • Contact information, including phone numbers, email addresses and various chat IDs
  • Friends, Tags and Connections, pretty self explanatory
  • How your friends share your data. There is an instant opt-out for this
  • Whether known applications are accessing and sharing your personal information

ReclaimPrivacy.org's source code is freely available here. For more information on the project, head to the aptly named reclaimprivacy.org.

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Comments

  • oh happy day

    I do feel better, thank you very much!
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