Category: Privacy

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Liberating your contacts from Facebook

Here is a simple method of getting your contacts out of Facebook and into your Gmail.

It starts with Yahoo! Facebook allows exporting of contacts to Yahoo!, reportedly through a lucrative arrangement. You will need a Yahoo Mail account, but they are free: ? http://www.yahoo.com/ – and click “Signup” if you don’t already have an account.

in your Yahoo mail, there is a Contacts selector in the left column. it looks like this:

 

SelectContactsinYahoo-7

 

Once you have selected Contacts,  Select Tools -> Import, as shown:

SelectImportinYahoo-8

 

You will get a dialogue like the one shown below. Select Facebook:

SelectFacebookinYahoo-9

 

Facebook will ask you to confirm that you want to share contacts with Yahoo!, click “Okay”.

 

OkToShareWithYahoo-10

 

Yahoo! will report success, including the number of contacts imported.

 

YahooContactsImportFromFacebook-1

 

Now you export the contacts, using a very similar method. This time, select Tools -> Export, as shown.

 

YahooContactsExport-2

 

Choose an export format in the dialogue shown below. Yahoo! CSV works best for importing to Google.

YahooContactsExportChoices-3

 

Yahoo! checks to see that you are a real person by asking you to transcribe some mashed up letters:

YahooContactsExportVerify-4

 

Once the export is complete, open and log into Gmail, select Contacts, and then More Actions -> Export. You will get an “Import contacts dialogue like the one below.

 

<img title="GmailImportContactsDialogue-5" src="https://i2.wp.com/farm2.static.flickr Your Domain Name.com/1353/5164814164_a8efc56010_m.jpg?resize=240%2C155″ border=”0″ alt=”GmailImportContactsDialogue-5″ data-recalc-dims=”1″ />

Choose the file, and I recommend also adding these to a special group at the same time, which will help you see them all. Google seems to do a pretty good job of merging duplicates, but having them in a special group will help you check and fix any problems. (I had no problems from my import.)

 

GmailImportComplete-6

 

 

Congratulations! Your Facebook friends’ contact info are now all in your Gmail!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I Shared What?!?

This is a sophisticated crowd at the Internet Identity Workshop, full of people who are very aware of the issues around identity, security, and privacy.

Joe Andrieu is showing his brilliant and simple tool “I Shared What?!?”. Login at http://isharedwhat.com/ and see what gets shared with apps on Facebook when you allow them access to your account. Just go through the signup and permission process as with any faceook app, and then use the tabs on the right side to see all the information you’ve shared. You can even change the sharing permissions and explore the changes.

Here’s what it looks like… (I chopped off all the juicy stuff below. Go look at your own!)

ISharedWhat-dariusdunlap.jpg

 

 

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Yes on 19… (California)

I’m backing California Proposition 19, even though I’m personally disinterested in marijuana. Paul Buchheit makes the argument beautifully, so I thought I would share.

Not only is prohibition an attack on our basic right to control our own bodies and minds (a philosophical point which most people probably don’t care about), but prohibition also provides a multi-billion dollar subsidy to violent criminal organizations that threaten our physical safety and security, something everyone cares about.

?http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/2010/10/quest-for-freedom-and-safety-why-i.html

Go read the whole thing. Even if you don’t live in California.