William Matheson's Journal

05:32 pm - Ale jestem geniuszem w Polska...

Current Mood: mischievous

11:53 am - Facebook: Viral App Alert ("Reported for Violating Terms of Service")

Oh, great. Just when you thought this Facebook bogus application thing was being nipped in the bud, another one pops up. It's like playing whack-a-mole.

"[Friend name] has just reported you to Facebook for violating our Terms of Service. - This is your official warning! - [Click here to find out why you were reported!] - Request Facebook look at what has happened and rule immediatley."

My advice to everyone is NOT to click, and if they have, to "immediatley" remove this rotten "app." That's Settings > Application Settings, and check under "Recently Used" 'cause this is another new one. Hit X and delete this piece of junk.

Spam and bots have already driven people off of MSN Windows Live Messenger, which was the sine qua non of online services for my place and generation. Facebook could be next if they don't do something soon.

Current Mood: annoyed

01:58 am - Facebook: Viral App Alert ("Error Viewing Profile")

This is an important message for all Facebook users.

People are getting notifications saying that people have experienced errors when viewing their profile. Clicking on the notification takes you to a page where you're to authorize an application in order to continue.

It failed the sniff test for me, and I quickly found that it's a bogus Facebook application that those folks had inadvertently installed. Perhaps they clicked on the "Activate" button, or perhaps they didn't - I don't remember clicking, and upon subsequent investigation (in the course of writing instructions for another friend on how to remove the "app"), I found that I had it myself!

News link:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/facebook/4787736/Facebook-users-targeted-by-bogus-application.html

Removing this app (it's easy):

Just go to "Settings," (top right, near the search box) select "Application Settings," and hit the X next to "Error Viewing Profile" or whatever it's called (I already deleted it ^_^). Since it's a new "app," it should be in the default view, which is "Recently Used."

Aside: I can hear Jaymee cackling from here. This will only reinforce the holdouts' reluctance. =)

Current Mood: annoyed