Facebook is back in the privacy news again, this time for opening up users’ contact details to applications, as described on ReadWriteWeb yesterday and by Jemima Kiss of the Guardian today.
But are the concerns or complaints that are appearing on Twitter and elsewhere valid? Facebook’s philosophy of making more things public is clear. The notice was written in plain language. It requires active opt-in to share the information. So what’s the beef or problem?
The problem, says Graham Cluley of Sophos, is that rogue application developers could get the information and then use it for spam or cold-calling. Graham asks,
You have to ask yourself – is Facebook putting the safety of its 500+ million users as a top priority with this move?
The answer is self-evident, isn’t it?