Facebook application invites from your friends can be terribly annoying when you’re just trying to “get your stalk on,” but do you ever think about just how many people are stalking you as you are stalking them? “Take This Lollipop” was recently released on Facebook this past October, and it is much different than just an annoying Facebook app, it’s tempting and it’s creepy.
My discovery of this Facebook application was through a friend who attends a different university. Julia Ryan, a sophomore public relations and psychology double major at Hofstra University, posted the link to “Take This Lollipop” on a group chat that me and my friends from home have going while we are at school.
She suggested that we all click on it, and prepare ourselves to be creeped out. “I came across the Facebook application in my mass media class,” said Ryan. “My professor actually showed it to us. He was amazed by the technology that allowed this application, and others like it, to run.”
After allowing this application to have access to connect to your Facebook profile, a video appears of a gross, sweaty man looking anxious as he sits at his computer looking at your Facebook page. The video is of course equipped with spooky music and noises to spook you out even more.
At first the man is scrolling down your page viewing wall posts, and second later, pictures appear. Pictures of what? Pictures of you, with your brothers, sisters, roommates, sorority sisters, fraternity brothers, friends, mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, boyfriend, girlfriend — the sweaty man has access to it all.
“I was really creeped out when the pictures of me and my friends popped up and I wondered how the application did that,” said Tara Moores, a sophomore pre-nursing major at the University of Maryland.
Not only does he have access to view these pictures, but he has access to your personal information. Try not to be too creeped out when this gross man types in your hometown on the Internet and the proceeds to get in his car, driving straight to your neighborhood.
The app is intended not only for some spooky Halloween fun, but it is also acting as a privacy PSA and a warning to Facebook users to not put all of their information out there on the internet.
The creator behind this Facebook app, Jason Zada, is actually the same person who created the fun and harmless holiday app for Office Max called “Elf Yourself.” He ensures in the fine print on the website that the app will not store any personal information or post anything without the users permission.
Kevin Curran, a sophomore journalism major at the University of Maryland, gave his input about the application saying that he thinks it will “make people at least think twice about what they put up on Facebook.” He proceeded to say that the scariest part was when the guy was scrolling through his pictures because it was “definitely unexpected.”
You know how you grew up with your parents telling you “never take candy from a stranger?” You may want to make an exception and actually take a click of this lollipop to make you think twice about what you’re sharing on Facebook.