Teleute

Discovered by a startup working on an autocomplete search facility for their upcoming website, they discovered a client-side code script which can be executed within the browser, to display Facebook’s ‘rankings’ from your profile. Facebook uses a server-side script, loaded when you use the site, called first_degree.php. This acts as a ranking algorithm, likely to be based on those who you interact with, the profiles you visit, who you chat and communicate with and those who you have recently become acquainted with. The higher the negative number, the more likely the person attached to it will display in Facebook’s autocomplete search — at the top of the window. While visiting someone else’s profile does not affect the global search rankings of Facebook profiles — so it cannot be ‘Google-bombed’ — Facebook only reflects these to the individual user. As described by the discoverers, there are probably two crucial files — one that opens your “first degree” friends, and another which loads your “first degree” pages and events. By indexing these results over time, it allows Facebook to deliver seemingly the best user for the search query. But perhaps more worryingly, this is client-side, making this data available to the computer you are using — and any malware lurking on it, too.