Third-Party Facebook Apps Can have Access on your Address and call Number [Privacy]

Starting now, you better pay pretty close attention to the dialog boxes that pop up whenever you try add third-party apps to Facebook. In the event you don’t, you could emerge as giving them your address and call number.

Facebook, in its infinite wisdom, has decided to allow third-party apps access to contact information (it truly is, whatever address and call number you’ve put for your profile), provided that you click ” Allow” inside the permissions dialog box. But since this dialog box doesn’t look substantially different from the fundamental permissions dialog-and since no network-wide announcement’s been made that that is now an option-it’s pretty easy to just click ” Allow” and give Farmville (or any number of third-party app scammers) your cell number.

Why doesn’t the contact information permissions have a separate, clearly-labeled dialog box? Why make it available automatically at all? Facebook should know better than this. And the inside track that contact information is now some of the many things third-party apps can mine for their own purposes shouldn’t be dumped on the Facebook developer blog at 9 p.m. on a Friday, the way in which this was. I mean, Jesus, guys, you couldn’t look sketchier in the event you tried.

But once you’re still keeping your private home phone and address on your Facebook profile, the joke’s probably on you anyway. Facebook hasn’t done much to demonstrate that it’ll be trusted with sensitive information like that. And why do you would like your own home address on your Facebook profile anyway? You may always do what one Graham Cluley reader suggests and change your phone number to 650-543-4800 -Facebook customer service.

[ Facebook ; Naked Security ]

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This post is tagged: Customer Service, dialog boxes, graham cluley, home address, infinite wisdom, phone number, security source