Yesterday there was an article about how Facebook has granted access to home addresses to developers. This is a great move for those into direct marketing, and one I am sure one that will have the large retail names on Facebook  rubbing their hands with glee. Now they can have catalogue apps and people will sign up for them because signing up for Facebook apps is so damn easy.

There will also be an outcry. Just one more hack at your privacy. How dare Facebook allow people to ask whether you want to give someone your address and mobile number. The nerve of these people!

So what stops you saying…no? Don’t click on the “allow”. If the app is asking for information that you don’t want to give then just say NO.

So How Else Do You Give Your Information Away?

I recently put out a survey to question people’s opinions on using Facebook as a sign up method for email lists. You can take a look here, and fill it in if you like.  I was looking for a couple of pieces of information, and one of those was people’s attitude to using Facebook to sign up for sites and services, like getting more information via email. I was quite shocked to find that some respondents did not seem to understand that they were the ones in control of their information, and that their privacy settings forbid third party applications from gathering information without permission unless you have made those details public to everyone.

That statement at the top of an app request that says “Access my basic information” is standard on ALL Facebook 3rd party app requests. Not because the application is using that information, but because Facebook is reminding you that this information is available to any old pervert if you have your settings at “everyone”. Responders to the survey were asking “why does this application need this information?” when they should have been saying “it’s cool, I have all my settings set to friends, or customised…or I haven’t even entered information I don’t want Facebook and others to have”

Everyone

Facebook wants your information, there’s no two ways about it. Not so they can sell it, but so they can sell it’s availability, and statistics on it, to other places. Sounds nit picking, but there is a distinction. Companies love being able to get information easily and more importantly, cheaply. Facebook allows them to do that. A neat self-sustaining (but not infinite) cycle of attracting companies to cheap information that attracts more users to those company’s applications that provides more information, is in progress.

Facebook make “everyone” the default settings for much of your profile details because it is in their best interests. They are also smart enough to know that most people are too lazy or uninformed to actually change them to something that will protect their information.  Facebook constantly remind you, in small print, that you should read the Facebook Privacy Policy and change your Privacy Settings . Sure they aren’t exactly shouting it from the rafters, but they aren’t making it overly difficult to do.

If you do not change Facebook’s default settings from “everyone” to something else, then “everyone” can see it…and I mean EVERYONE.  Search engines can index it, and where it goes after that – who knows?

There are only two things you cannot change the privacy settings of, your name and your profile picture. Everything else is customisable right down to making only yourself able to see/have access.

Here’s my contact information and why I don’t worry about that “Access My Basic Information” reminder in 3rd party app requests.

PRO TIP – Make sure you check your settings after every Facebook update. They have a habit of “accidentally” changing settings, or giving more options that may be more relevant to how you want to share your details.

Why Do I Care?

Like Facebook, it is in my financial interests to make sure people understand that they have the power to affect who gets to see what. In the next couple of weeks I will be launching a tool that will allow people to place code on their sites that will use the Facebook 3rd party app request to sign people up to email autoresponders. If people are scared of app requests because they see that top clause, then I need to educate them that there is nothing to fear…if they have adjusted their settings. I will be creating a video to show people what they should be doing with their settings so they feel comfortable with how their information is protected.