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Facebook Sharing Too Much Personal Data With Application Developers
An anonymous reader writes "Remember the Facebook News Feed privacy uproar? What about the Beacon scandal from late last year? Privacy activists are rallying around yet another major issue at Facebook, in which the company is secretly sharing user data with third parties. Researchers from the University of Virginia recently announced that in a study of the top 150 Facebook applications, more than 90% were given access to information that was not needed to function correctly. That Scrabble or Superpoke application you really like? Its developers get access to your religion, sexuality and home town. Facebook's position was summed up by Georgetown Law Professor Dan Solove, 'They seem to be going on the assumption that if someone uses Facebook, they really have no privacy concerns.' Do Facebook users deserve privacy? "
Maybe I'm just that suspicious, but the first time I went to look at one of those "applications" on facebook, the first checkbox in a list of a half dozen you can select before you hit "go" was a riff on "Allow this application to access my personal info" ---I automatically assumed that meant ALL my info, and promptly cancelled whatever it was.
Did anyone ever really have the assumption that that information was needed to make the app function, and not just a way of tricking users into giving up demographic info to third parties?
Personally I'm not sure Facebook is in the wrong on this one. It's up in big letters that you're giving whatever application it is access to your personal info--and all those things are OPTIONAL to place in your profile. I don't know that it should their fault that users don't think it through and then become surprised/outraged when they find out what it really means.
If you can't see the value in jet powered ants you should turn in your nerd card. - Dunbal (464142)
Dude, what is so hard here? It is an API. Do people typically customize an API for every user (as in application using the API) to limit the available calls only to what is needed? It is an interface. The data available in said interface is CLEARLY DOCUMENTED. Yes, technically Scrabble has access to the religion of its users. Yes, it could be storing this.
Seriously, what is confusing here? You have to agree when you add an application that it will be able to access your profile data. When you say 'yes, allow this', why would you be surprised that the application is then allowed to do what you just allowed?
http://developers.facebook.com/documentation.php?doc=fql