Sophos Cloud Optix
A rogue application which claims to allow you to see who has viewed your Facebook profile is spreading between accounts on the popular social network.
Messages claiming that Facebook has issued a new update which allows you to check who has visited your profile are making the rounds.
New Update from facebook. Now you can check who visited your profile. check here -------->>>FAŒBOOK PROFILE VIEWER ®<<<<------
Who Watching your Profile ?
If you are intrigued by the Facebook Profile Viewer enough to click on the link, you are asked to permit an application to access your profile.
You should always be very careful, of course, about allowing applications to read and write to your Facebook profile. And this time is no exception.
Because although at first you may believe that the application is showing you the details of people who have viewed your profile..
..behind the scenes, it is posting a message to your Facebook page without your explicit permission, encouraging others to also use the application.
Clearly rogue applications like this could be used for scooping up personal information, or spreading spam and scams across the social network.
So if you fell for it, remove the messages from your timeline, revoke the app’s publishing rights and report it as spam to Facebook, and ensure that you have revoked its access to your account.
And remember this – Facebook does not give you any way to find out who has been viewing your profile. Any application or link which claims it can reveal to you who has should be treated with great suspicion.
Make sure that you keep informed about the latest scams spreading fast across Facebook and other internet attacks. Join the Sophos page on Facebook, where over 180,000 people regularly share information on threats and discuss the latest security news.
This has been around for a long time. Why can't Facebook do anything about it?
see this stuff everyday on facebook and is nothing new, surely they should have a deticated team who can analyze each application submitted and must approve of its intentions before allowing it to be released.
I can point you to several website's where people are willing to set this up for as small as $10 with the intention to spread malware, or links to CPA offers E.T.C
Damn True ….
so how does this app produce the accompanying list of pictures and friends? Does is just randomly go through your friends list and assign a random number or is it legitimately reading activity?
if you read this article above it explains that facebook doesn't make the information available so yes it is just a random list of names from your friends that you would have given the app permission to look at.
Just liked this post on fb to tell my freinds to look out for it because one of my friends already fell for this scam…
Thank you. I removed the app.
<Why can't Facebook do anything about it?> Why can't people just LEARN not to install these stupid apps?
Maybe because that would require common sense, something many stupid human beings neither HAVE, nor WANT!
Apps like this are successful by preying on the stupid, gullible members of society – the sort of people who cannot resist things that are "too good to be true", or who simply HAVE to forward on chain letters because they won't be able to live with themselves if it turns out to be true and they haven't forwarded it!
These people will never learn from their mistakes, because to do so requires them to have the intelligence and willingness to analyse the situation, and to ask themselves how likely it is to be true.
Why can't Facebook do anything about it?
Thank you. I removed the app.
Every app on Facebook posts to your wall…..and many of them are not rogue. To make a claim like that is a misnomer really. 99% of apps on Facebook scoop your information, heck even Facebook and Google do it to create their 'market targeted adverts' – check the ads next time and see how many relate to something you looked up online, or are pulled from your own or friends content. If this app were depositing malware or a virus, I'd say something then….that would be something to be aware of
Take for example when you sign in here under Twitter….or wordpress… what information is made available?
Thanks for a clear and informative overview. no spam. No ulterior motives. Just information. Really rare and very much appreciated as is illustrated by my time to stop and say thank you. I will remember this web site and suggest it to others
Geoff
Norfolk
U.K
Looks like it is doing the rounds again
how do i get rid of the app??
why doesn't facebook allow their users to see who viewed their profile? because there is clearly a want for that, otherwise people wouldn't install this app….
Facebook shoudn't make it possible and that will end with these types of scams
Theres good and bad in seeing who looks at your profile. But what if it was a lost friend or relative? It would be helpful.
Know who your friends are and you won't need the app…..
Agreeing with Tino. There IS good and bad to seeing profile views. The good: it gives you a sense of who really cares about you. A relation to real life.. if there's somebody you don't see or talk to for a year, you can pretty much say you're not friends. With the internet, that line is fuzzy considering we can see people whenever we want by looking at their fb, giving us the perception that we still have some social connection with them.
Now the bad: Facebook won't implement any feature that will lower facebook activity. Because that harms their business and loses them money. People would become weary of looking at somebody's profile too often in fear of the other person being "creeped out". Also, people would delete others that aren't staying in touch. Both of these have a huge impact on overall fb activity.
IMO, I think they should add the feature.. I say this only because fb is taking a negative impact on how we interact with our friends, old and new. Knowing who's viewin your profile tells you who is thinking about you, and who wants to keep in touch with you.
im not sure why people are stressed about whose looking at their profile anyway. If you made fbook friends with someone you cant then complain that they dared to look at your page!. and if a non friend is looking well they shouldnt be able to get past your home page if you turn on the privacy settings that you want.
I had a guy that I didnt know ,never saw in my life and lived 5 states away say this app said I had looked at his profile 2 or 3 x's ??????? NOT TRUE!!
Good
I am one of the people who have fell under this trap in the past. My question is, how then do I revoke the apps access to my account?
on your Facebook you will have account settings, then click on apps from there, there will be crosses next to it. from there you can remove apps you don't want.
Under Facebooks current setup, here's how you can fix this: Go to your privacy settings, > Apps, Games, and Websites > Apps you use > Turn off all apps. To stop your friends' app activity from cluttering up your news feed, click on the down arrow at the upper right corner of the post. You'll get a menu of choices like "unsubscribe from (friend's name)" or "unsubscribe from (app name)", etc. Pick one, and voila! No more useless noise.
You can't. It's not possible to find out who has been viewing your Facebook profile.
With over billions of dollers in share price, surely facebook corp can sort this out or are they too busy counting their money?
Facebook owe us their protection…fb's bank account, would be zero – without us !
facebook should add that as a feature because i have a few people who are online stalking me (my ex-wife's husband being the most annoying). i dont see what is the big problem about wanting to know who has visited your wall. its your wall, you should have the right to know who viewed it.
If you don't mind me asking, it's just outta curiosity, how do you know he is stalking you?
It's not your wall. It's facebook's wall. read the fb disclosure
i have deleted the app but now i cannot do things such as like a post , comment , share or even accept friend request , this is pissing me off severley does anyone have any idea how too fix this please
Have you tried Google+? It is a similar social networking site, started by Google.
What I didn’t like was that all the world knows who saw your profile automatically to label would that is removed only what you see one that is removed or there is an application for people not to see who saw my profile
I don't want it now after reading this. Many thanks, but does it work?
all that comes out fb's watcher's account is BLA BLA BULL SH*T!
So it’s true their is no such things as profile viewer, thanks to the author “Graham Cluley “, for this blog, can you believe i was searching for a Facebook profile viewer and ended in this blog.
I’ll spread the word too.
love the page