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FACEBOOK HAS A NUMBER of uses, mostly communication, but it can also be used to glean information about other things you might not have realised, such as sleeping patterns
A software developer, Søren Louv-Jansen, from Denmark, created a tool where he could track the sleep patterns of his friends using activity data from Facebook.
The tool uses the activity timestamps that Facebook stores on its site and Messenger app, showing them when they were last active on the site, and used it to determine when people were asleep or awake.
The software checked Facebook’s database on user activity every ten minutes, allowing him to create graphs showing how it unfolded. Since most people check Facebook the first thing in the morning and night, Louv-Jansen was able to determine the sleeping patterns of its busier users.
In general, sleep patterns were consistent on the weekdays but ended up becoming random on the weekends.
Louv-Jansen has put the source code for the tool up on GitHub although Facebook itself has asked him to discourage others from using his software, although he said the intention wasn’t to spy on his friends. Instead, he wanted to show how people continue to leave traces of their online activity when they don’t realise it.
“In this digital world, we leave footprints where we go, and when we do it, without even thinking about it,” he said in a Medium post. “Facebook might block this little ‘hack’, so your friends can no longer track you, but Facebook will always be able to do their own data analysis which is undoubtedly way better than what I’ve come up with.”
He told the Washington Post that Facebook was in touch with him, saying it violated its terms of service and to discourage others from using it.While he stopped using the tool himself, he hasn’t taken it down from GitHub, saying it’s the best way to raise awareness of the privacy at stake.
I’m not proud of people starting to spy on their friends, but maybe this can make everybody more aware of the consequences of our actions.
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Great technology and fantastic to see this in Ireland. How is it being financed ? I see Journal and Journalist bashing busy again here. A strong press is one of the bulwarks against totalitarianism. The weakening of the press is the weakening of democracy and a civilised society.
@On the Up:
Good question! Free service, seemingly.
@On the Up: it’s financed through the industry… but at least you got an excuse to throw a few big words in.
@On the Up: why only now though.all the same great new great technology.
How about not been able to turn off the location tracking from the flight deck. Its bonkers that Google can tell me exactly where I have been been but not planes. Seriously how has this not been fixed yet. Guess there is no extra charge the airlines can come up with for it.
@Vincent #SaveDaredevil: google doesn’t know where you were, it knows where your phone was.
@Pilib: Unless you tow your phone behind you on a 200m rope, then it amounts to the same thing.
@Vincent #SaveDaredevil: Maybe because that’s not how location tracking works on planes? (Nor on your phone when you’re flying 35k feet above the sea, for that matter)
@PedroB: or maybe just turn off location permission on your device from your own cockpit! Then google couldn’t find you either.
Is there a big dial showing how long is ‘A long long way from Clare to here’ in each case?
Very proud that Ireland are hosting / providing this service.
super and long overdue i guess…
Flight radar was good
Nice one
So that’s what those kites are for…
Must be a new day the journal hacks are starting to wake up with cheap storys as usual nothing changes here ha
@Liam Ward: What are you on about? I find this story very interesting, being interested in aviation and all that. Go back to bed.
Born in Australia to Hungarian parents represented Australia until 2012 then switched to representing another country seems almost as bad if not worse than situation in international soccer.
have your say