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You're sharing your personal data with every app (raganwald.posterous.com)
43 points by michaelkscott on April 7, 2012 | hide | past | favorite | 9 comments



I dont use any application and I turned off the app platform. I think its the best thing to do right now. By doing that, you dont have to set anything else, nothing is shared with any app. The only downside to this is that some apps might decide to force Facebook on you (hello Spotify), but I was lucky enough to have an account before they went Facebook-hungry, so I am all set.


If you turn off the app platform, you MUST be careful not to turn it back on. If you authorize any app, for any reason, you turn the platform back on AND Facebook restores the default sharing preferences, which at the moment seem to be that your friends’ apps can read everything about you except for your sexual preference and religion.


I figured. Thanks for the tip. And I actually had an idea of a Facebook app and was wondering whether things change in that regard. Of course you would want to be the first customer of your app. I wonder how people who share concerns like me deal with these kinds of situations.


This is fine and useful advice, but it's only going to work until the next time FB overhauls their security settings and resets everything to (permissive) defaults. In the name of improving privacy, of course. Too much of that for me, so I quit FB a while back.


Exactly this. I don't particularly mind sharing some of my personal data with 3rd parties, especially because I actually like ads if they are for new products that I am actually interested in purchasing. However, not being able to reliably control what exactly that data is without keeping up with the latest subtle changes in wording is too much for me.


The most irritating part about removing the permissions of applications that you use is that you have to delete every application individually. Thats two clicks per application (one for deleting and one for confirmation). Why cant I just get a checkbox next to each application and remove them in bulk? I have tried removing these apps but I always get tired mid way and give up.


Same applies for changing email settings.


I don't use Facebook applications, but I use Pidgin to Facebook-chat (using Facebook's XMPP interface). This requires* "If I'm Online" to be shared with apps (even though Pidgin is not a Facebook application). I have everything else unchecked. I wish I could uncheck that too. *last I checked.


If you click these settings, do they do exactly what they say on the tin? Or are they a bit leaky?




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