The most popular social media site in the world
announced the move on its Facebook Developer blog, in a post Friday
night by developer liaison
So far, Facebook has not mentioned the change on its
general announcement blog for users or any other network-wide methods.
The company has dealt with privacy concerns for years, with a focus of
criticism being third-party app makers’ access to user data.
For Facebook users, this means address and phone
numbers already listed in their profile will be given to a developer
who requests such information by way of the “Request for Permission”
dialog box that pops up when a user begins the process of adding an
application to their profile.
Users have the ability to not share their numbers
and addresses with an app, as long as they choose “don’t allow” when an
app dialog box pops up. But usually, if a user doesn’t allow an app
access to his or her information, he or she won’t be able to use the
app.
The dialog box doesn’t look much different from the
basic permissions dialog box used in the past. The difference is simply
that a couple lines of text have been added: “Access my contact
information” and “Current address and mobile phone number” below it.
The address and phone number information, if
requested by an app, would join the usual requests for a user’s “basic
information” made by many apps already, including access to a user’s
“name, profile picture, gender, networks, user ID, list of friends, and
any other information I’ve shared with everyone.”
Facebook spokeswoman
“We want to make it easy for people to take the
information they’ve entered into Facebook with them across the Web.
This new permission gives people the ability to control and share their
mobile phone number and address with the websites and apps they want to
use.”
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