Posted on 01/17/2011 1:24:40 PM PST by nickcarraway
Facebook made the announcement quietly at on a Friday evening before a holiday weekend -- that it will make its users' addresses and mobile phone numbers available to all Facebook developers.
Although users will still have to allow applications to access their address and phone numbers, AllFacebook reports that many users may not notice the new change. Nor does Facebook protect its users from malicious or spamming developers who may decide to load up malware and spamware on the site simply to gain information. From AllFacebook: Unfortunately, the developers plying the user graph objects include rogue applications, such as spamware, malware and deceptive schemes that security staff seems to have a hard time keeping up with. This category of n’er-do-wells can now gain access to people’s mobile phone numbers and street addresses. So we really hope the social network devises a way to bar the rogues from using this set of code, and if that’s not possible, then perhaps get rid of the entire thing before any damage could be done.
While that would be a great solution, it's an unlikely one. That Facebook has decided to give developers this information already shows a great lack of care for its users' privacy. Still others are more piqued by Facebook's seeming underhandedness. From InsideFacebook: One troubling fact is how Facebook announced this major change. Instead of in a dedicated post with mention of the potential risks, it was merely part of a weekly dispatch about bug fixes and migration deadline extensions — with no commentary on its impact. It was published on Friday evening of a three-day weekend, at 8:16pm PST, diffusing immediate feedback, and later the post’s time stamp was changed to 6:00pm. If people are going to trust that the site has their well-being in mind, Facebook needs to concentrate on mitigating risks for users, not minimizing backlash to itself. That's pretty weaselly, made even more so because Facebook declined to make a public announcement to the users it was planning to exploit.
If users want to protect their privacy, they must use less personal information (such as taking down or erasing phone numbers, addresses or e-mail addresses.) Facebook has shown it has no compunction in allowing others access to user personal data, so it's plainly up to users to prevent the spread of their information.
I’ve got your phone number and address. I call your phone number. No answer. Pretty good chance your home is empty. If I was unscrupulous, what could I do with that info?
More Facebook Bashing. And Sarah thinks she has it bad. Jealousy over a company that has more than 600 million members must piss some people off.
Anyone who puts their address and phone number on FB is an idiot.
I’ve never trusted Facebook and recently finally figured out how to delete my name off of there.
People actually give that information to Facebook? LOL!
Well, it would be a fake address and phone number in my case, to go with the fake name and email used only toward that end. But my name really is Steve.
Your name and other info is still in the archives and could still be misused.
For the ping list.
Not if they don’t have it they won’t.
Really why people put that much information on any publicly accessed website is beyond me. There’s nothing in my FB account that I wouldn’t put on a billboard. Which includes no address and no phone number.
They can’t give out your address and phone number unless they know those things. How would they know this unless you tell them? Most of us aren’t foolish enough to put that data anywhere on FB, public or private.
Out of all my hundreds of FB friends, acquaintances, correspondents, and business contacts, not one of them has a non-business phone or address visible. I don’t think there’s even a place to put your address when you’re signing up for FB the first time.
Isn’t this what phone books have done for 100 years? Why is it a crisis now?
Somehow I’ve managed to survive life without a facebook account.
>>I’ve got your phone number and address. I call your phone number. No answer. Pretty good chance your home is empty. If I was unscrupulous, what could I do with that info?<<
I dunno. What did you do with it when you used a phone book?
Because your white pages entry doesn't contain porn videos, affiliations with Sarah Palin and other material that could be used against you.
No address, no phone number, not even a real name. It was none of FB’s business.
I never give those sites real information. Heck, I noticed a few months back that a bunch of people were wishing me a happy birthday and wondered what was up. Then I remembered the bogus birthday I entered.
Heck, my age on sites has ranged from 25 to 65. You sometimes have to give a REAL address though. Thanks to modern postal software and coordination with business, they can determine the validity of an address, so I just pick some business address.
>>Somehow I’ve managed to survive life without a facebook account.<<
The only reason I got one was to spy on my daughters. ;)
However, it was just a hassle and there is no need to spy, so I just stopped using it. I did find out a LOT of people waste a LOT of time on something called Farmville.
No Facebook or MySpace or Ebay or Angies List or Craigslist.
Thank you very much;)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.