Will Facebook Share Our Addresses and Numbers?

Privacy and Surveillance

Will Facebook Share Our Addresses and Numbers?

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The thing with Facebook is that not all people are aware (or bother to care) about privacy settings. A lot of them are trusting enough that platforms like Facebook will take good care of their privacy information. This may sound irresponsible but this is the truth so Facebook is left with the task of handling our information well.

But it seems that Facebook is one of the first firms to actually blur the lines between information that may be shared to the public and those that are deemed to be very private (like addresses and phone numbers). Last January 15, it announced that external websites and applications may now ask for permission to gain access to your address and phone numbers, something that caused outrage in the Facebook and larger privacy rights communities.

Common sense would tell you that people should read the request first before approving them, but it is a fact that majority of the people just click through these messages in order to access these apps. It's a scary thought when you think of the fact that many of these apps are just bogus ones that invite people to just sign in. What happens to your information when they fall to these hands. Facebook's justification that these information may be used by apps such as shopping carts does not sound enough for me.

So the rage went on for the rest of the week, with many users criticizing this new policy published in the Facebook blog. In the end, Facebook backed off and retreated from its decision, although it said that it is still willing to push through with it after making a few changes in its policies. Until then, we will have to wait and be vigilant for more intrusive privacy measures in the future. All it really takes is vigilance and strong opinion whenever potentially abusive measures are put out.

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Tags: • facebook • common sense • phone numbers • click through • privacy rights • shopping carts • privacy settings •

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