Facebook

[Surfer01]

Every now and then I get an email advising that I have been added to Facebook by some friend or other without my permission. I find this quite annoying as I have no intention of subscribing to Facebook at all and I have no way of finding out what details have been posted.
I don't want to crap on my friends who probably think they are doing me a favour but obviously my email address is being posted as I receive a notification. Is there anything I can do about this?

[buzby]

I hears recently from a DCA agent that he uses Facebook as his preferred information resource to catch up with his customers. He said it usually works if they are 32 or under!

[Surfer01]

My concern here is that Facebook were able to send me an email therefore they have a record of my email which can be obtained if somone hacks the site. You would think that friends would have the decency to ask you if they can add you to their friends list on a website instead of just going ahead and doing it. In my books it is an invasion of privacy and i don't care whether or not no one else can see my details, the fact remians that my details are now associated with this so called organisation. IMHO it is a load of crap and only for a certain type of person!

[Surfer01]

Originally Posted by davjoh

I take offence to this - you have asked for help and I have briefly explained the way that the website works.

Do not take personal snipes at other site users who are trying to answer your questions, it belittles the idea of consumer emplowerment, which is the whole point of this website, and apart from anything else, it's damned rude.

I hope you get an answer to your query.

Dave

No snipe or anything similar was intended at all. All I was saying that I don't agree that people should be allowed to post your details without your permission, i.e. they should contact you first and ask if they can add you to their list of friends or by the same token Facebook asks you if you wish to have your details on their servers.
Certain types of people enjoy liaison with old friends but I can't be bothered because if the so called friend didn't keep in contact in the first place that is their issue and obviously they are not a true friend. Those that have kept in contact over mant years can be regarded as true friends and I do not need Facebook for that purpose.
Anyway thansk very much for the update and no offence was meant at all. I guess my English grammar is rather poor.

[Beaker_smiles]

I think you misunderstand the way facebook works. As davjoh said, they have no record of you because you are not signed up. Asking for facebook to e-mail you to see if you mind being added as you are suggesting is exactly what they are doing. If you do not choose to sign up, then they won't have a record. Your details will not appear on the site anywhere.

[cjnewbs]

When I signed up to facebook the last stage was to invite all your freinds, I skipped this stage, because I hate those "Jim has joined Facebook, and has invided you" emails. I belive what happens is your freind provides facebook with their username and password that they use for msn messenger, or other chat program. Facebook then connects to MSN messenger and appears to the MSN servers as MSN messenger, so therefore receives the contact list. This way they are able to e-mail all your freinds.

I think when you sign up you can also add e-mails manually.

https://register.facebook.com/findfriends.php

[FU-UU]

Personal snipes! I read the thread twice and saw no snipes concerning cag members whatsoever?

Originally Posted by davjoh

I take offence to this - you have asked for help and I have briefly explained the way that the website works.

Do not take personal snipes at other site users who are trying to answer your questions, it belittles the idea of consumer emplowerment, which is the whole point of this website, and apart from anything else, it's damned rude.

I hope you get an answer to your query.

Dave

[funhat]

Can you just not add the address to your blocked senders list and be done with it?

[sequenci]

I know that when I signed up to Facebook it went through my gmail address list and offered to send invites. I think that there were various other e-mail clients that could be trawlled through too. I was given the chocie of allowing this action or not.

[funhat]

I've just checked an invite I sent to myself for something a while back, and the domain the request will come from is facebookmail.com. Add that to your blocked senders and you won't get anything more from any of your friends signing up.

[mfpa]

It would be much more satisfactory if telling Facebook you wanted to invite your friend generated a new email on your pc which you then sent from your own address.

As for the "chain" emails and the endlessly recirculating jokes, I am continually telling people to use the BCC: field instead of circulating my address without my permission.

[woad]

Perhaps what people should be more worried about is *how* facebook, myspace, et al, obtain the email addresses to send out your invites.

The process, simply put, is that they read your messenger client address book - whether you are signed in to MSN/etc or not, and harvest the addresses. If you are *not* signed in (into MSN Live, for example), you dont have to sign-in in order for the api to access the data....

Any warning bells ringing? The software api (computer program code) that does this is therefore available to literally anyone, who's intentions may be less than social.

BTW, I would recommend *not* visiting meetmymessenger site (or meetyourmessenger I'm not going their to doublecheck the site name for the same reasons I recommend not going there!)