Yesterday I wrote about a new ‘feature’ in Facebook which meant that third party developers would now be able to easily pick up phone numbers and addresses from Facebook. To be honest, I wasn’t the only one writing about it.
Just shortly after their announcement on the subject last Friday Facebook now pulls back. The feature will be changed and until then the feature is “on hold”. It looks like Facebook listened to the criticism. (more…)
UPDATE JANUARY 18: FACEBOOK HAS POSTPONED THIS NOW, SEE MORE IN THIS ARTICLE
At first sight it seems a ‘simple slight change’ into the functionalities of what developers can do with Facebook. A step also which would make the lives of both developers and users easier and a step closer to Facebook becoming an authentication tool.
It might even be all those things, but it might also be yet another privacy threat coming from Facebook. The fact is that just before the weekend, on a very strategic moment a new blogpost went live on the Facebook Developer blog which stated that “now making a user’s address and mobile phone number accessible as part of the User Graph object“.
The move might have big implications for privacy matters. Although the information is not a bank a [SlideDeck id='5301' width='100%' height='370px'] ccount number, the phone number and address of people is considered to be one of the most private elements, especially on a social networking site. Those who want to do wrong now can do wrong a bit more easy. (more…)
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