Viral Facebook App: Take This Lollipop

Yesterday I wrote a more in-depth piece on another blog about the viral app that is sweeping across Facebook: Take This Lollipop. Originally I wrote about it from the privacy perspective, but since it is essentially to do with Facebook, it deserves a mention here.

I won’t regurgitate the whole thing verbatim, but simply give you Take This Lollipop in a nutshell. If you haven’t heard of this app yet then I suggest you read my original piece over on the DADapp blog, as that has spoiler warnings in it that I won’t replicate here.

Essentially, Take This Lollipop is a very clever app that shows a rather creepy looking gentleman going through your Facebook profile, and eventually coming after you. The ‘screen’ he’s looking it is obviously populated with information that you grant the app access to before the video starts. At first it was very unsettling, until I spotted inconsistencies such as the wrong typefaces being used, and the top row of photos on my profile showing as ones that I have hidden from there – the app presumably takes the five most recent pictures from your ‘Tagged Photos’ to create the mock-up profile.

While this may just be some very smart programming telling a fictitious story in ‘real-time’, it’s a strong reminder to make sure that you have appropriate privacy settings enabled on Facebook, and that your account security is up to scratch. One thing that this app didn’t show was the man deleting your content or deactivating your account – something that can and does happen. If you are concerned about other people gaining access to your account content or just want to leave altogether, you’d be wise to back up your Facebook Profile and Pages in case of a security breach.