Privacy concerns lead to site suspending service
By Leeann Li |
June 26, 2012, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A website copied from Facemash, Facebook's predecessor, and popular at a university in a central Chinese city has suspended service after students asked police to probe privacy violations.
Hust-facemash.com, Facemash's copycat in Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province, provided a similar "hot or not" game for students in Huazhong University of Science and Technology.
It took student certificate pictures from the school's online information platform and allowed visitors to compare the student pictures of two girls side-by-side and let them choose who was "hotter."
Many students were outraged by what they considered the site's violation of individual privacy. But the site said its main aim was to warn the school of security loopholes in its online platform and urge it to step up protection for students' personal information rather than to show girls' pictures.
The website couldn't be accessed as of yesterday and it claimed the system was under temporary maintenance. It didn't say whether it was forced to shut down by authorities or because of widespread criticism.
The website designer, whose identify wasn't disclosed, was believed to have transferred the web server to California to avoid domestic punishment.
The mysterious inventor didn't try to conceal his admiration for Mark Zuckerberg, who created Facemash when he was a Harvard University student, and attached his words on Hust-facemash.
Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, opened Facemash on October 28, 2003. He hacked into Harvard University's website and stole photos to have students picked "hot boys and girls."
However, the website was shut down by Harvard executives a few days after it opened. Zuckerberg faced charges of violating copyright, breach of security and violating individual privacy.
He also faced expulsion from Harvard. However, all the charges were eventually dropped, and on February 2004, he launched Facebook, now the world's largest social network service.
Hust-facemash.com, Facemash's copycat in Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province, provided a similar "hot or not" game for students in Huazhong University of Science and Technology.
It took student certificate pictures from the school's online information platform and allowed visitors to compare the student pictures of two girls side-by-side and let them choose who was "hotter."
Many students were outraged by what they considered the site's violation of individual privacy. But the site said its main aim was to warn the school of security loopholes in its online platform and urge it to step up protection for students' personal information rather than to show girls' pictures.
The website couldn't be accessed as of yesterday and it claimed the system was under temporary maintenance. It didn't say whether it was forced to shut down by authorities or because of widespread criticism.
The website designer, whose identify wasn't disclosed, was believed to have transferred the web server to California to avoid domestic punishment.
The mysterious inventor didn't try to conceal his admiration for Mark Zuckerberg, who created Facemash when he was a Harvard University student, and attached his words on Hust-facemash.
Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, opened Facemash on October 28, 2003. He hacked into Harvard University's website and stole photos to have students picked "hot boys and girls."
However, the website was shut down by Harvard executives a few days after it opened. Zuckerberg faced charges of violating copyright, breach of security and violating individual privacy.
He also faced expulsion from Harvard. However, all the charges were eventually dropped, and on February 2004, he launched Facebook, now the world's largest social network service.
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