This week, the internet was abuzz with talks about the return of once the most favorite social media platform of many Filipinos -- Friendster.
Many immediately noticed, including me, that it's not the original Friendster because it's using a .click and not the .com domain. My first reaction upon knowing it from my friend Azrael Coladilla was to warn my friends, but after thoroughly checking the site with inputs from Rodel Plasabas of the DICT, I found NO evidence of phishing or scamming. Still, many were not convinced and accused the site of doing illegal online activities, even telling people to stay away from www.friendster.click because a supporter of the Philippine president Bongbong Marcos shared it.
I sent a message to the admin of the page and found out that the owner is Bram Gumilang from Indonesia. A web developer who used to work in IT industry and now builds houses and designs surfboards.
I found Bram easy to talk with and straightforward when I asked him about Friendster. click. Here's what we talked about:
Art: Why did you create the "new' Friendster?
Bram: Friendster always has that kind of nostalgic and sentimental value to me.
Around 2005/2006, when Friendster started implementing its CSS customization feature, I got heavily involved in Friendster-related groups and communities. In 2006 I launched the website Friendster -layouts.com and a community forum friendstertalk.com, which had quite an active userbase until Friendster started losing it's traction in the social media world.
So last year when I had a bit of free time I decided to start friendster.click and build it with free/open source platform, because why not. It's fun to build something, even more fun to see that people are also having fun with it.
Art: What data are you collecting and how will you protect these data?
Bram: Basically the same kind of data collected by websites like facebook, twitter, etc. in order for these kind of sites to operate, but in a much smaller scale. More about this can be read in the site's privacy policy page.
I'm not a security expert, but I do what any web administrator does to protect websites and databases from intruders, including making sure the web server secure and the systems up to date.
Friendster.click database doesn't store any sensitive financial information (we don't ask users to fill in their bank or credit card information or anything like that).
Passwords are stored not in plain text but encrypted with certain hash (that kind of one way encryption is pretty standard in modern web these days), so even if someone has access to the database, the person can never decrypt it.
Art: Are you planning to sell the data that you have collected?
Bram: No. When the data is stuff like aB0uT mE, zodiac, favorite music, etc., the possibility/value of selling it is not substantial enough that makes it worth ruining your reputation as a web admin.
Art: Many people with no security background claim that the site is collecting data that could be used for phishing attacks. What can you say about this?
Bram: Just like any other site, by default, the site collects data. Browser information, geolocation, cookies, those kind of stuff. For other data that is more specific in nature (including email address, comments, personal information, etc.) it's up to the users, the way they engage with the site, and how much they want to share about themselves.
I've never done any phishing for my personal/financial gain, not at Friendster.click or other sites I manage. I never created a website with that kind of intention.
Art: What do you want to tell the people who accused you of using Friendster to scam users?
Bram: While having a certain resemblance to the original Friendster, it's quite obvious that the site is fan-made. The site is definitely not being used to run a scam operation, financial fraud, or anything like that.
Art: The site is now becoming popular. What are your future plans for this?
Bram: I have yet to make any future plans for this.
Art: Are you planning to make Friendster.click a complete social media network? Will your future moves include giving Friendster its old glory?
Bram: As long as the site can stay online and grow within a reasonable scale, that would be good enough.
Art: People criticizing your site are concerned about security. Can you assure them that data will be secure and safe?
Bram: No one can actually assure anyone 100% security and safety. Even websites run by corporations and governments can be hacked.
Never post any sensitive/financial information online. No one can steal from you if you don't make valuable/important data accessible to begin with.
Art: Do you have any message to Friendster.click users?
Bram: I just wanna say thank you for the support and the enthusiasm. It's a pleasure to see you all around, having fun, making connections, showing off the background pictures and music/video on your profiles, and so on. Let's keep the Friendster experiences and memories alive.
Art: Thank you, Bram, and I hope to connect with you at Friendster.click.
Bram: Thank you Art.
I checked Friendster.click and it never claimed or pretended to be the Friendster of 2003. It is obviously a fan site that aims to give a nostalgic experience to the former users of the real Friendster. Is Friendster back? Yes, it is back because it never left the hearts of every user. It may not be the real Friendster that we used to love, but it makes us feel again the connection it created among the millions of users all over the world.
So what are you waiting for? Go check www.friendster.click and get those testimonials from friends that we all missed.