#rapleaf

[lecataste]

Josh Fox | The Truth Has Changed | 2018

[mece888]

Sounds to me like Clinton vs Lewinsky

[siliconvalleyryangosling]

Hey girl.  I dig you so much I want to know everything about you so I can make you happy. I'm like the Rapleaf of love.

[chicagohacks-blog]

Rapleaf Spreadsheet Hack

Recently I've been using Google Spreadsheets in some of my prototypes and hacks as an early stage database and functional (albeit not pretty) UI. They're easy to set up, they include nice permissions and security options, they can easily be manipulated by code or manually, and they make a great go-between for YQL to pull from. But my colleague Bill takes spreadsheets to another level. He's not (yet) very experienced with web scripting languages, and so like any good hacker he gets things done with what he knows. In a recent newsletter, Rapleaf shared a spreadsheet that makes use of macros to pull data from the API. It's a nice proof of concept, but it's Windows-only. I asked Bill if he could help me take a crack at a Google Spreadsheet version.

To make use of this, open the example spreadsheet, click "File -> Make a copy..." and save it to your own Google account.

Then enter your Rapleaf API key into the "Key" sheet. Now you can enter email addresses in the first column, wait a couple seconds, and get the inside scoop on your peeps. The most clever part, and what makes it a true hack, is that Bill isn't even using the API directly. Rather, he's taking advantage of Google's importXML function, a bit of xpath, and the fact that Rapleaf has a developer playground page. As with all Google Spreadsheets, you're limited to 50 function calls, which in the case means you can only have 50 email addresses in there at a time.

[coderspiel]

The most disruptive thing about the API is how accessible it makes information that marketers have paid a lot of money for in the past.

Your Income, Home Ownership & Parenthood Status Now Available as an API

[shortformblog]

Facebook's "privacy breach": Meet Rapleaf, circa 2007

This is an e-mail we got way back in 2007. Good time of our life. We were living in Norfolk, Va., probably drinking an iced coffee and getting dumped on by an old ex or something. Well, one day, we got this e-mail in our inbox. Something seemed pretty bizarre about this e-mail. We don't have the old page, and it no longer exists, but this company, Rapleaf, had a significant amount of information about us that it was publicly sharing with other people we didn't know. And the service wasn't opt-in for some reason. After getting really pissed about it and yelling and stuff, we opted out and didn't think about it again for a while. We were reminded of this e-mail when we read the WSJ's Facebook story today.

What's going on?The WSJ investigation suggests that certain app developers have been giving away personal information about their users to services like Rapleaf, who then sell the information to marketers, who were then able to trace the users by linking their e-mails and user IDs. Rapleaf says it was unintentional.

LOLApps was doing it Over the weekend, Facebook game company LOLapps, known for their quizzes and other games, was kicked off of the site unexpectedly. (They're back now after a cooling-off period.) Their platform is super-popular and has millions of users. Nobody knew why – that is, until the WSJ made it clear.

Don't blame Facebook Facebook isn't the bad guy here; they're just the indirect conduit. We're much more inclined to question Rapleaf. Based on our prior history with them, we can say that they have a history of directly violating end users' privacy. And we find it hard to trust their explanation at face value. source