Meet StalkScan, the incredible application that reveals all your Facebook information
A self-proclaimed Belgian “ethical hacker” Inti De Ceukelaire has created a tool called Stalkscan that shows how easy it is to find information on Facebook.
This tool taps the power of a mostly-forgotten Facebook feature called ‘Graph Search’ that was launched by the social media giant in 2013. The intention to create Stalkscan is to highlight how much information Facebook users post about themselves, even without thinking about the privacy implications.
“Graph Search and its privacy issues aren’t new, but I felt like it never really reached the man on the street,” De Ceukelaire told Motherboard. “With my actions and user-friendly tools I want to target the non-tech-savvy people because most of them don’t have a clue what they are sharing with the public.”
While Stalkscan doesn’t violate any privacy settings of Facebook, it is important to note that the tool only allows you to use Facebook’s existing search functions. For instance, if you are not someone’s friend on Facebook and they have set it so that only friends can see their posts, you won’t be able to get around that with Stalkscan.
However, if you are on the friend list, then you will be able to not only see all the pictures they have been tagged in, but also comments, events they have attended and events they plan to attend, posts, places they have checked in at, as well as people they may work with, classmates and family members. Similarly, it is applicable for those who are on your friend list and access your Facebook profile.
“Like most services, we offer a search feature, but search on Facebook is built with privacy in mind,” a Facebook spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “[Stalkscan] merely redirects to Facebook’s existing search result page. As with any search on Facebook, you can only see content that people have chosen to share with you.”
A Facebook spokesperson highlighted that the platform allows users to take control of their privacy, if they so wish.
“We offer a variety of tools to help people control their information, including the ability to select an audience for every post, a feature that limits visibility of past posts to only your friends, and education efforts launched in consultation with Belgian safety experts,” the spokesperson wrote in a statement.
Just another play tool what a fake