Change to Facebook compromises users’ privacy

In the late hours of Friday evening, Facebook revealed on its blog that they have now updated their developer terms to allow users’ phone numbers and addresses available which led security experts to forewarn of the dangers of having your contact details available on Facebook, urging users to remove them.

If users have already made personal details such as phone numbers and addresses available on their Facebook profiles, then when they accept the terms and conditions of a third party developer company after downloading an app, they will automatically be giving them access to these details.

Some sources are saying, although the change isn’t as drastic as it first appears, what with users needing to give the third party companies permission to access their data and so on, it still poses the potential for many scam applications that ride on the back of the Facebook bandwagon.

There are already numerous rogue applications on Facebook which are designed to direct users towards survey scams which will earn them commission or trick them into giving out phone numbers so that they can be signed up for premium rate services.

According to the IT security company, rogue app developers will have a field day with the new developer’s terms, making it infinitely easier for them to obtain personal information that can be used against Facebook users.

Facebook dished out advice to its supposed one million developers on the right way to go about asking users for permission to access their data now that is has been liberated since Friday. Critics remain skeptical, saying that most people just download and install the apps without even bothering to read the small print.