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by kalleboo 4617 days ago
> As does having a user's friends vouch for them (they call their friends and ask).

This is probably the most "Facebook" of the options. They already do something similar for some account lockout situations ("identify 5 photos of your friends to gain access").
2 comments
Macha 4616 days ago
This will be made difficult by people in your friends list using photos of cartoon characters, possessions, family members, significant others etc. as their profile photos.

If they go further and use photos that people are tagged in, then it also has problems of people being tagged in photos they are not present in to get their attention.

For example, in my friends list only around 70% of people have photos of themselves as their profile picture. Boy/Girlfriends and babies are the next most common picture.

Even if you recognise the specific picture, it might not be helpful. For example, two of my friends are dating, and use the same picture with both of them in it for their Facebook profile pictures.

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VLM 4617 days ago
"identify 5 photos of your friends to gain access"

Really? I don't use FB so I can't verify, but that sounds like an epic security hole for prankers, stalkers, ex's, and abusive spouses.

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singold 4616 days ago
I can confirm that this happened to a friend when accesin facebook from another country.

Also I remember reading an article (from HN) where some guy hacked a facebook account (if I recall correctly) and that was one of the steps (he and the hacked one where friends and coworkers so they had lots of friends in commmon)

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VLM 4616 days ago
Hmm, well hopefully just one of many steps and not "that's all it takes".

I'm no FB fan, but if they are using friends pictures as a CAPTCHA to verify the authenticator is a human not a automated computer, I grudgingly tip my hat in respect toward them. That would be much more elegant than the usual lame CAPTCHA.

This strikes me as it may become more of a problem as kids abandon FB and older people use it. The kid I sat next to in middle school lunchroom back when Reagan was president, and I clicked "yes" on his friend request out of guilt, well, I have no idea what the heck he looks like now. Ex-girlfriends? Well, I remember really well how she looked when she was 19, but that was a long time ago, and...

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