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Who’s been looking at your Facebook page? Can you find out?
By Becky Worley | Yahoo!

If you have been an internet user for more than five minutes, you've no doubt seen an advert or two that promises to "find out who's searching for you". It sounds like a scam, but is it actually possible?

Can someone find out if you've been looking at their Facebook or LinkedIn profile? Can you tell if someone's unfriended you? And can you see what searches have been performed with your name?

Facebookhttp://uk.news.yahoo.com/video#video=28319634

First the warning: there are scams a plenty promising to show you who is "stalking" your Facebook page. I put in a call to Facebook and spoke with their technical folks - the truth is no-one can see who's been on your Facebook page. There are no features buried in the Facebook settings with that data. There are no apps that can unearth that info. Facebook says it is one of the most common scam come-ons on the site. Don't fall for it; you cannot see who's looking at your profile (and no one can see if you've been looking at theirs).

But… there are apps and tools to see who's unfriended you. Facebook tries to squelch these apps, but I found a couple: one that you download to your computer called UnFriend Finder and one for Android called Friends Checker. Sign in, and they store a list of your friends. Then every time you check back, it tells you who's no longer on the list. UnFriend Finder also reminds you of friend requests you've made that haven't been answered. For Twitter, Qwitter does the same thing, telling you who's unfollowed you each week.

Professional tools

LinkedIn is a popular social networking site that lets you connect with professional associates and keeps your work activities up to date, and it does let you see who's viewed your profile. This handy feature is over on the right column of the site - it looks like an ad, but click it to see a handful of most recent people who've looked at your profile. To access a comprehensive list of people checking up on you, you need to pay £8.55 (inc VAT) a month to upgrade to a Personal Plus membership.

While this may seem voyeuristic, it actually makes sense to me: if you're looking for a job, you'd want to know which hiring managers are checking up on you; or if you network for business, this feature tells you which sales leads are vetting you. Another professional site for academics and researchers called Academia.edu has the same useful feature.

Finally: search data about you. You'd love to know who's searching for your name, but the real truth is that search companies will not reveal any data about searches, not unless they are compelled by a warrant. So any come-on promising to tell you who's searching for you is a scam. But you can find out what search terms people combine with your name. Google AdWords offers a keyword search. It will tell you what corollary terms are associated with the search for your name. For example my friend Leo Laporte is a tech podcaster. The words associated with searches for his name are ‘Leo Laporte Twitter name’ and ‘Leo Laporte Blog.’ This corollary info is helpful and might influence his decision to more prominently market his Twitter handle or blog address.

Bottom line: there is very little data available for you as a consumer to track who's looking you up or looking you over on social networking sites.

Note: We’re running this content on Yahoo! UK & Ireland as a trial. Would you like to see a UK-produced series? We’d love to hear your comments. Let us know below.

Facebook Spy - Who's been looking at your profile and pictures?

http://youtu.be/QRdomHVv2AI

A rogue application that promises to allow Facebook users to know who visited their profile page is circulating the social network.

A new iteration of an old scam has surfaced on Facebook pushing a fake application that promises to enable users to see who has visited their Facebook page.

The problem? Facebook does not allow this capability. According to Sophos, the app is spreading across the social network with messages that say: "OMG OMG OMG... I cant believe this actually works! Now you really can see who viewed your profile! on [link]."

Those who click on the link accompanying the message are taken to a Web page that asks them to permit the application to have access to their Facebook profile, blogged Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. Granting that permission will make a user's profile "yet another victim of the viral scam. ... And no, you don't ever find out who has been viewing your profile."

This is far from the first time this type of application has circulated the network. Tempting as it may be for a user to know who is visiting his or her page, promises to keep track of that type of information are invalid.

"Facebook does not provide the ability to track who is viewing your profile, or parts of your profile, such as your photos," the company states in its Help Center. "Applications by outside developers cannot provide this functionality, either. Applications that claim to give you this ability will be removed from Facebook for violating policy."

The company later states, however, that while it does not provide an app that enables users to track profile views or statistics on the views of specific user content, third-party developers may offer some of this functionality. Still, the company has made it "technically impossible" for applications to track profile visits for users who simply go to another user's profile.

According to Cluley, the current campaign is using a variety of different links, but via bit.ly Sophos has observed that at least one of them has tricked nearly 60,000 people into clicking.

"Always think before you add an unknown application on Facebook, and ask yourself if you're really comfortable with ceding such power to complete strangers," he blogged. "Rogue application attacks like this, spreading virally, are becoming increasingly common—and do no good for anyone apart from the scammers behind them."

Uploaded by TheYoungTurks on 1 Dec 2010
http://www.facebook.com/TYTnation

Facebook App: See Who Views You (Bad Idea?)http://youtu.be/hXdON3wfhbQ

Policeman ‘chased himself’ for 20 minutes while looking for suspect

A police officer chased himself for more than 20 minutes whilst on the look out for someone “acting suspiciously”, it has been revealed.

The officer chased himself while attempting to find a suspect spotted on CCTV.The probationary officer, from Sussex Police, was undercover checking out an area that had been hit by a spate of burglaries when he was alerted by CCTV operators to a nearby suspect. Unaware that the suspect was himself, the officer set off to track them down – chasing his own tail for more than 20 minutes.

The mistake was only realised after a sergeant inside the CCTV control room recognised the young officer, prompting mass hilarity. The pursuit came to light after a senior officer spoke of the incident to a magazine published by the Police Federation.

“Every time the man darted in to another side alleyway, the PC was turning immediately into the same alleyway, but every time the CCTV operator asked what he could see there was no trace,” the senior officer revealed.

“It was at this point that the sergeant entered the control room where he recognised the junior officer.

“With the sergeant's sides aching from laughter he pointed out to the PC that the operator had been watching him unaware that he was a plain-clothes officer – thus the PC had been chasing himself round the streets,” he added.

Sussex Police also managed to see the funny side of the incident. “Policing is often a serious business, so we all enjoy moments of light relief,” a spokesperson said.

“This story was shared anonymously with the Police Federation magazine, so unfortunately without the date or location, confirming the details and locating the officer is harder for us than it was for the CCTV operator.”
@YahooNewsUK