Search Facebook with Graph Search; thoughts and concerns

Phil Bradleyhttp://www.philb.com

Introducing Graph Search

Discovery via friends

• People who share your interests• People who like your photographs• People who live in Manchester and like

restaurants in Leeds• Films that your married friends like• Books that my relatives like• Photographs taken in London before 2003

Discovery from strangers

• People who like wargaming– and who live in Basildon

• People who like eHarmony (a dating site)– And who are married

• Pastors who like Ann Summers (an adult store)• People who like Alcoholics Anonymous– And who work for Microsoft– Or who work for Google

In other words

• With Graph Search you can look up anything that has been shared with you on Facebook

• Other people can find things you have shared with them

Privacy issues

• Control who sees your Profile on the About Tab

• Review photographs that you have shared or been tagged in

• Review your posts with location tags in your activity log

Using Graph Search

However...

• It’s surprising what you can actually find out...

But hang on!

• Only two married men out of millions of men who are that stupid?

• How trustworthy are these results?

Let’s get back on track

Concerns

• Should I worry about blurring out faces etc?• After all, it IS public data. Isn’t it?• Do these people know that it’s public?• What responsibility, if any, do I have for or

with their data?• At what point do we need worry about linking

A + B data to get C, which may be private?

More concerns

• Up to what point can we extrapolate?• Does ‘liberal minded’ in a ‘complicated

relationship’ mean something that others might think is a bit sleazy?

• If we don’t think so, what about other people who will?

Targeting selling

• Easy to find all the people who like Argos• Then corrolate to those who also like

gardening• Then who live in a particular area• Promote a 20% off offer on lawnmowers!

• Is this acceptable? After all, it’s advertising they might actually want!

Getting Graph Search

If this is what you’re seeing, then you don’t have access to Graph Search

Click on the cog option

Account settings, General Account

Save and you’re done.