Live data from Hacker News

Facebook Now Shares Phone Number & Address With Third-Party Apps

readwriteweb.com

11–20 of 82 posts

Re: Facebook Now Shares Phone Number & Address With Third-Party Apps

#13
post #7

Less sensational headline: Facebook Now Allows You to Share Your Phone Number & Address With Third-Party Apps

Not really. That implies Facebook are offering a way to push your phone number and data into third party apps. What they are infact doing is now allowing third-parties to request extra, and very very personal, information about you using the same dialog that people have effectively now been trained to basically click-through. I really think this dialog needs two things: 1) Something that highlights the fact you are a…

1) The fact that there is a second item below "Access my basic information" would seem to make that fact abundantly clear. I'm not sure how much more explicit it can get.

2) While I agree that it would be good to give users a greater level of control, most apps are unfortunately not designed to play nicely with varying levels of permissions. Such a change would require significant advance notice to Platform developers.

Re: Facebook Now Shares Phone Number & Address With Third-Party Apps

#14
post #5

Where's the option to choose which items get sent? Looks like all or nothing.

The app has to warn you as to what is getting sent; you then get to decide if you want the app or not. In other words, it's not really "all or nothing" as much as "whatever this particular app asks for, or pass on this app."

Exactly. Give this app "all" of the information it is requesting or give "nothing." People want more granular control.

Re: Facebook Now Shares Phone Number & Address With Third-Party Apps

#15
post #10

I seem to remember that not so long ago it was standard advice not to give out your address or phone number to people you don't know on the internet.

Most people also didn't use their real name online. Facebook played a huge role in changing that.

Re: Facebook Now Shares Phone Number & Address With Third-Party Apps

#16
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. That implies Facebook are offering a way to push your phone number and data into third party apps. What they are infact doing is now allowing third-parties to request extra, and very very personal, information about you using the same dialog that people have effectively now been trained to basically click-through. I really think this dialog needs two things: 1) Something that highlights the fact you are a…

1) The fact that there is a second item below "Access my basic information" would seem to make that fact abundantly clear. I'm not sure how much more explicit it can get. 2) While I agree that it would be good to give users a greater level of control, most apps are unfortunately not designed to play nicely with varying levels of permissions. Such a change would require significant advance notice to Platform developer…

While I agree that it would be good to give users a greater level of control, most apps are unfortunately not designed to play nicely with varying levels of permissions. Such a change would require significant advance notice to Platform developers.

They can obviously live without contact info since they haven't had access to it until now.

This is actually an interesting potential solution to the permission dialog problem: force apps to handle certain permissions in a granular way. Always let the user deny those permissions independently. Then the app can be forced to make a specific case for why it needs each of those permissions.

Re: Facebook Now Shares Phone Number & Address With Third-Party Apps

#17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1) The fact that there is a second item below "Access my basic information" would seem to make that fact abundantly clear. I'm not sure how much more explicit it can get. 2) While I agree that it would be good to give users a greater level of control, most apps are unfortunately not designed to play nicely with varying levels of permissions. Such a change would require significant advance notice to Platform developer…

While I agree that it would be good to give users a greater level of control, most apps are unfortunately not designed to play nicely with varying levels of permissions. Such a change would require significant advance notice to Platform developers. They can obviously live without contact info since they haven't had access to it until now. This is actually an interesting potential solution to the permission dialog pro…

> "They can obviously live without contact info since they haven't had access to it until now."

This is such an illogical statement that I'm not quite sure how to respond to it.

Re: Facebook Now Shares Phone Number & Address With Third-Party Apps

#18
With a multi-billion dollar valuation, I'm sure that the majority of Facebook's value is in all information it gathers about you. Is this any surprise to anyone? One way or another Facebook is trying to monetize your info. Maybe it's just me but there always seem to be some kind of news fading away about Facebook privacy. I'm my theory that's why they are worth so much. Don't think they are going to stop doing this anytime soon.

Opt-out..hahaha maybe opt-out of only the really obvious ways Facebook is selling your info.

Re: Facebook Now Shares Phone Number & Address With Third-Party Apps

#20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The app has to warn you as to what is getting sent; you then get to decide if you want the app or not. In other words, it's not really "all or nothing" as much as "whatever this particular app asks for, or pass on this app."

Exactly. Give this app "all" of the information it is requesting or give "nothing." People want more granular control.

People who read HN, myself included, want more granular control, sure. I don't think most of Facebook's users would care or understand about the granular control -- I think a simple yes/no like Facebook has right now is probably the best option for most users.
Post reply on HN