TheIdeaMan

Facebook and Privacy

If you add a Facebook application, you are giving the owners of that application access to the following information (obviously Facebook already has access to all this data to use as they may):

The Facebook Site Information may include, without limitation, the following information, to the extent visible on the Facebook Site:

• your name
• your profile picture
• your gender
• your birthday
• your hometown location (city/state/country)
• your current location (city/state/country)
• your political view
• your activities
• your interests
• your musical preferences
• television shows in which you are interested
• movies in which you are interested
• books in which you are interested
• your favorite quotes
• the text of your "About Me" section
• your relationship status
• your dating interests
• your relationship interests
• your summer plans
• your Facebook user network affiliations
• your education history
• your work history
• your course information
• copies of photos in your Facebook Site photo albums
• metadata associated with your Facebook Site photo albums (e.g., time of upload, album name, comments on your photos, etc.)
• the total number of messages sent and/or received by you
• the total number of unread messages in your Facebook in-box
• the total number of "pokes" you have sent and/or received
• the total number of wall posts on your Wall™
• a list of user IDs mapped to your Facebook friends
• your social timeline
• and events associated with your Facebook profile.

That information is from the Facebook Platform Application Terms of Use.

Most of the information in that list isn't something you'd reveal to
recent acquintances and some of us have even hid it from other Facebook
users whom we know by using the "Limited Profile" choice (which is
oddly unavailable for apps).

By posting this, I am not saying that using a Facebook App is a bad thing or that you should avoid them, but rather that you should certainly be aware of the choice you are making and what you are offering to total strangers under their "privacy policy" (whatever that may be for the specific app you want to use).

Just think, and make your own decision.

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Posted by TheIdeaMan at June 14, 2007 09:04 AM | TrackBack