StudiVZ – If your data is leaking, the plumber is missing and you’re looking for excuses
“Dear diary -
I have just created a nice new place where all my friends connect to each other. Already a million of my friends and their friends have come to my place. They left pictures, they left details of their private life, they left messages to each other. Wow, what a nice community. We all love each other. Despite some small problems.
A few days ago, I heard rumours that pictures were stolen from my place. Private pictures. I can’t believe that. Should I react to these rumours? Nuh, I’ve heard lots of rumours recently. But I have done anything? Let’s not do anything about it, it will all calm down.
Hmm, some newspapers have asked me. I don’t know where they got all the information from. Maybe they also heard the rumours. No, probably not, they are only journalists.
It’s good that nobody knows that I have almost no keys to my doors. Even worse: I don’t even have a door! Anybody can come into my place, steal pictures, watch what people wrote on the walls and to each other, see their list of friends. Everybody can write short little summaries about my friends. My private information, all is leaking – but who knows. Nobody will find out.
Oh no, some people even come into my space and copy the pictures of my friends. They save them and upload them to their discussion group – and then they rank them. And make strange comments. And they write how sexy my friends are. I wonder if my friends really wanted this too happen, being oggled at by strangers.
Where is the number of the plumber? Maybe he can fix it. Oh no! The plumber says he doesn’t want to fix this problem. He tells me that the problem was widely known weeks and weeks ago and that my left ear did not tell my right hand what to do.
What to do now? Well, easy. I know how to do this. An easy three step program.
First stage: denial. No, I have no problem. Everything is secure with me. I have my doorkeeper, you know. He watches who comes into my place. Allthough it seems that people are not only coming through the non-existing door, but also they are coming through the windows, through the roof, through the basement. It seems that everybody knows how to come into my place. They won’t listen, they won’t believe that there is no problem. It’s time for the next stage, but meanwhile I’ll ask all my friends to take all their pictures out of my space.
Second stage: illussion. Okay, maybe I have a problem. But the problem is not that big. If somebody wants to enter my place, they have to knock on my door for a million years. It’s almost as safe as the bank tresor in which I put the money that I get from selling my place. Will they believe that? Yes, sure. They are not mathematicians. Yet maybe … maybe it is actually quite easy to get in. And maybe I have not understood how a Bank Tresor works. Maybe a normal bank tresor does not allow to try to knocking on its doors for a million years. Or even less. New stage.
Stage Three: relegation. Okay, I have a problem. But everybody else does the same. Even my big brother. Even my shop. Even my photo-booth. So, you know, if everybody does something that is wrong, it turns out to be right after all! No, that is too easy. Even if they are not logicians, they will understand that “Some people steal” is not the same as “I can steal and it’s okay to do so”. What to do now?
Phew, I am lucky. My friends don’t care. They have uploaded their private data to my place. They know that the internet gives them no protection. They want to Gruschel each other. They want to exchange pictures. They want to sing how much they like me. And they don’t mind, if one day I sell my warehouse of stolen copied program code, their pictures, their data, their profiles to somebody who is even worse.
And tomorrow I’ll call my friends with the big cars and the shiny new phones. I will tell them that their money is safe – inside my space. And that they can earn lots of more cash with me. I think they will like me.
What a long day. I’ll turn off my diary now. I go home. Good night.”
November 22nd, 2006 at 02:44
This is the last night. There´ll be no more night.
November 22nd, 2006 at 03:01
On the one hand, I’m curious to see how this will all play out. On the other hand, I don’t really care enough about StudiVZ anymore – I resisted for months when everyone was talking about nothing else; the moment I sign on, all the holes in their carefully programmed bought code become apparent.
All I’m waiting for now is for the mole to put the complete site source on some P2P network. Then all hell would break loose, and I wouldn’t have to spend so much time breaking their hash functions…
November 22nd, 2006 at 03:48
[...] Hätte ich mich doch nur noch ein paar Wochen länger geweigert, da mitzumachen! Le seufz! Todo für morgen: Profile meiner Freunde scrapen, mein Profil löschen, Freunde per ICQ anhauen, done. Gute Nacht. posted November 21st, 2006 at 22:48 [...]
November 22nd, 2006 at 08:48
StudiVZ in der Kritik…
Seit einiger Zeit ist das StudiVZ in die Kritik von Datenschützern geraten. Persönliche Daten sollen mit einem Fake-Account schnell auslesbar sein und seien somit nicht wie von den Usern erwartet geschützt.
Das StudiVZ wurde auch durch seine fragwü…
November 23rd, 2006 at 04:01
[...] kam heute ein enormes Datenleck zum Vorschein:
Alle Daten eines beliebigen Nutzers, seine empfangenen und gesendeten Nachrichten, seine privaten Fotos, seine Freundesliste, Gruppen und Pinnwandeinträge, alle seine Kontaktdaten sind einsehbar – und MAN KANN SIE SOGAR ÄNDERN! [...]
November 25th, 2006 at 04:26
[...] Now one of the big issues heavily discussed issues was the StudiVZ finances. StudiVZ partially disclosed their shareholders but apparently not to the satisfaction of the blogosphere. Particular strange was the refusal of the StudiVZ makers to speak about their plans to sell StudiVZ to Facebook, even though details had already leaked into the blogosphere. Probably because the sale to Facebook would also involve the access to the user data – something that no StudiVZ user really expexted. StudiVZ reacted by issuing a statement about data security and identifying somebody responsible for data-security. The problem: the data-security guy (Manfred) is closely involved with StudiVZ, works in their IT-development department – which is according to German law quite insufficient for guaranteeing data-security. Quite soon it also emerged that data in StudiVZ is actually quite unsafe. Even though Facebook has the same problems, none of the German users wanted to accept that all pictures, their all private data and all friendship-links could be downloaded, that it was impossible to exit from groups and that even deleted messages would still be viewable to non-registered users (which interestingly covered up the efforts by the StudiVZ to clean up their own privacy). Despite their efforts to overhaul the system, the data leaks are available until now. And Don Alphonso continued. So after copying what what some people have written on a better PR for a while, StudiVZ advertised for a PR professional and tried to bribe hire convince Don Alphonso to work for them. The problem was: nobody and certainly not Don Alphonso wanted to do work for StudiVZ. None of the German Crisis PR agencies wanted to take over the rotating steering wheel. [...]
November 28th, 2006 at 02:16
[...] Die öffentlichen Bilder, die schlechten IDs, die Super-Suche, private öffentliche Pinnwände (mit unlöschbaren Nachrichten), immer öffentliche Freundesliste, etc. [...]
Oktober 15th, 2007 at 21:45
[...] soon it also emerged that data in StudiVZ is actually quite unsafe. Even though Facebook has the same problems, none of the German users wanted to accept that all [...]
Januar 3rd, 2008 at 04:36
[...] know if you have heard about the StudiVZ (facebook service in Germany) and how it evolved (see also Karsten Wenzlaff’s post on the subject. this one [...]
Januar 3rd, 2008 at 04:42
[...] know if you have heard about the StudiVZ (facebook service in Germany) and how it evolved (see also Karsten Wenzlaff’s post on the subject. this one too). Even facebook phishing scams have been developed, to get a hold of [...]
September 16th, 2008 at 16:16
I am not a big fan of FaceBook, but isn’t posting personnal stuff online a risky experience ? If banks and governments cannot keep our personnal information confidential, I do not expect a privately run company doing any better.
Good luck with your issues.