One developer has combined HTML, CSS, JavaScript and the Facebook API to create a site called OpenBook. The site was designed to highlight some of Facebook’s privacy issues by enabling users to automatically search for embarrassing posts on the popular social networking site.
FacebookSearch, part of the Openbook website, lists status updates which contain keywords that the user is searching for, which are typically not posts a user would want their boss, or parents, to see. Results show the poster’s name and profile picture, potentially opening up Facebook members to embarassment.
Openbook is a creation of Will Moffat, Peter Burns and James Home, who stated, “Openbook draws attention to the information Facebook makes public about its users via its search API. Facebook exposed this service on April 21st, 2010. Our goal is to get Facebook to restore the privacy of this information, so that this website and others like it no longer work.”
