Facebook will soon share users’ phone numbers and addresses with 3rd parties

[Gaia]

It's been a while since we've had an uproar over Facebook's handling of its users personal information, so we suppose the time is ripe.

So cue the online outrage: Facebook announced today in a letter to Congress that the social-media platform is moving forward with plans to give third parties access to user information, such as phone numbers and home addresses.

In a letter to Reps. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Joe Barton (R-Tex.), who both expressed concerns over Facebook's plan to make such data available, company officials reiterated their now-familiar pledge to leave it up to users to decide whether they want their personal contact information to go out to app developers and outside websites. Markey has previously said that "Facebook needs to protect the personal information of its users to ensure that Facebook doesn't become Phonebook."

The company, meanwhile, sounds as though it has no plans to trim back its information-sharing ambitions.

"We have not yet decided when or in what manner we will redeploy the permission for mobile numbers and addresses," the letter states. "We are evaluating whether and how we can increase the visibility of applications' request for permission to access user contact information. We are also considering whether additional user education would be helpful."

Facebook has incited user revolts in the past by arbitrarily re-calibrating its privacy settings and then making it difficult for even the most seasoned web geeks to figure out how to reset them. And once again, anger is roiling among tech industry observers.

"Facebook is the slowly warming pot of water and we, my friends, are the frog. By the time we noticed our peeling skin, another hunk of our privacy is long gone," MSNBC tech writer Helen A.S. Popkin wrote about the latest move. "This is how Facebook rolls: Strip away a huge chunk of your privacy, cry 'Our bad!' and roll it back when users and/or privacy advocates complain. Then wait awhile, and do whatever it is Facebook planned to do anyway. Voila! Boiled frog."

Or as Facebook VP Elliot Schrage bluntly (if less colorfully) put things in the midst of a similar uproar last year: If you don't want Facebook to share your personal information, don't share your personal information with Facebook.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110301/ts_yblog_thelookout/facebook-will-soon-share-users-phone-numbers-and-addresses-with-3rd-parties

[the_flyingboy]

thanks for the info Gaia

[king anthony]

Well done keeping people informed about Facebook.

If I recall correctly, my story took place in 2007; after some friends telling me about Facebook (FB). After a few months, I opened a Facebook account;. If I may in brief;

- Used my online alias and made-up my particulars.
- My account was closed a few months later.
- I inquired why and I was told (by them), I had to provide my real name and particulars.
- I pointed out the email I used had my real name and that I would like to have access to my account again.
- The they reactivated my FB with my real name and real particulars - strange thing; I never gave them my real particulars.
- Within weeks, I began to look into FB and found many horror stories from others.
- One FB friend I met said FB refused to (permanently) delete her account.
- I decided to delete my account and I was told they couldn't; [quote] 'it was against the law'.
- I began positing truths about FB on my wall and telling others about it.
- After a battle, they assured me they would delete everything - did they I will never know.
- Keep in mind: FB owns all the material anyone posts, including photos; even after deletion.
- I had a FB application contact as recent as this past summer; they had all my info and other people were contacting me through it - this is how I learned about it. I told them (again) to delete me.

FB targets youth and the youth 'buy into it'. Adults either get it to keep an eye on their children or want to keep feeling young - Facebook spreads like wildfire. One of the biggest selling ploys - 'find those long lost friends from way back when' - I say, there is a reason why people drift apart.

Is Facebook really needed by the masses, putting aside the 'corporate government's' need; the answer is no. Email me, text me, call me, maybe even voice me online or send smoke signals - better yet, 'pop over' for a drink and some food and let us communicate like people used to... face-to-face.

[Gaia]

Another reason I don't register anymore with on-line services like Facebook. I learned my lesson long ago you know... That's why I closed my account. Facebook did not become a multi billion dollar empire because it actually produced and good or provided a significant service. Facebook made and makes its money by selling personel information to the highest bidder, we all got suckered into it one way or another.

It could be the last straw hopefully !

[Icecold]

Thanks Gaia.

Don't use Facebook, I run a mile.


The name implies that it is completely ego driven.

Look at me I have friends, here is my life story and the story of my entire family.

[Neal]

Thanks Gaia for the link, I shared it with everybody I could.

I realized what Facebook was all about and tried to get other people to leave or severely limit the data put into that (alleged) CIA/NSA front. I don't know of any of my friends that left despite the information on FB selling their private information. I stopped using FB for about a year and a half, but have recently started using it only to post links that will hopefully open people's eyes to the truth and awaken them. The links get onto their walls, so I hope that maybe, just maybe, one or two people will read the links, turn off the computer (and FB) and start to take their heads out of the sand to see the coming storm.

One can only open the door and wait for somebody to walk through...