Despite heavy criticism, Facebook has decided to implement a privacy setting that has the potential to breach the privacy of every single facebook member, across the globe.
Less than two months ago, Facebook announced in a blog post to 3rd party developers that they could now access user address and phone numbers through the permissions page. Three days after that, facebook decided to retract the policy and backed down after receiving an influx of complaints.
Well Facebook has plans to reinstate the sharing of user addresses and phone numbers- their only issue? Figuring out how to break this change to facebook users.
Facebook claims that they are "committed to providing clear notices to users"; however, they did not notify users in any way, shape or form the last time they decided to share private information with developers and marketing companies alike. In a letter to Congressmen Edward Markey and Joe Barton, Facebook dances around most of the issues and concerns brought up.
Marne Levine, Facebook VP of Global Public Policy, asserts, "The framework is predicated on the assumption that, because users will not typically authorize applications that request access to too much information...applications will not typically ask for more information than they need to operate."
How can you prevent facebook from sharing your address, phone number and other private data with 3rd parties?
Follow these simple steps to change your privacy settings:
1) After logging in to facebook, click Profile, then Edit Profile (both appear on the top right side)
2) Click the Contact Information button on the left side of the page
3) On this page, in the upper right-hand corner, click Edit Profile.
4) Make sure all address and phone number fields are blank.
5) Click Save Changes to ensure your changes are made.
Will you be updating your settings?