Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal News Blogs -> Legal Blog Watch

Legal News

: Legal Blog Watch

Openbook: When 'Please Rob Me' Does Not Cause You Enough Personal Damage

By Bruce Carton

Now that your geo-location tweets on Foursquare ("I'm not home! I'm the new Mayor of the Bora Bora Starbucks, enjoying my $1 'Mayor's discount'") have led to the robbery of your home thanks to the helpful folks at "Please Rob Me," what's next? Thanks to Openbook, the "Please Rob Me" of Facebook, the possibilities are now endless. Want to lose your job, irreparably embarrass yourself by revealing intimate details of your sex life, or get divorced? Welcome to Openbook! In short, Openbook uses Facebook's search API to collect and make searchable -- outside of Facebook -- all of the "status updates" that Facebook users make. ?This is a simple example of just how open Facebook has made your information," the creators of the site told TechCrunch. "This data is wide open, and this is one of the least scary uses that anyone will make. If nothing changes, it?s only to get worse.? To get troublemakers started on the site, Openbook's default searches are things like "going to a strip club," "my dui," "cheated test," and so on. But don't let the default searches stop you from probing further. Want to know who thinks "their boss is an a**hole?" Who has...

Full post as published by Legal Blog Watch on May 19, 2010 (boomark / email).