Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Facebook Now Sharing Your Address and Phone Number

Updated Below

I just deleted my Facebook account after reading this article on Salon, which revealed that Facebook is now sharing my home address and telephone number with third party developers.

"In a platform upgrade on Friday, Facebook announced that these 'new user object fields' were free game for anyone and even gave detailed instructions on how to access users' addresses and phone numbers."

That was the last straw.

Although I had over a thousand Facebook "friends," I rarely used the service, so deleting my account was not a big sacrifice.

By the way, Facebook makes it easy to deactivate your account, which will temporarily hide your information until you reactivate it, but they make it more difficult to permanently delete your account.

So, here is a short-cut for permanently deleting your account: log in to your Facebook account, paste the following URL into your browser:

http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account

and follow the subsequent directions.

UPDATE: After reading some of your comments, I reconsidered. Luckily, my account deletion did not take affect yet (it can take up to 14 days), so I reactivated my account and made my personal information as impersonal as possible.

5 comments:

  1. A pity, Stana, because I liked that I had a quick upadate of your blog in my FB-application on the iPhone.

    I don't think one should be worried too much about the matter.


    I have never even considered giving them private data.
    And using a social network with the complicated structure of FB is like driving a new car. One doesn't just start and drive immediately, without having a good overview from reading the manual and checking the main issues (amongst others the safety settings).

    Why the heck would anybody put in private address data, phone nos., etc in FB?

    Everybody knowns or can know that it is a private, profit-oriented business which can't be trusted.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I follow the same rules as Atalanta. I also do not have any private information on FB. I also do not play any games because they can access you profile information.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am with you and no longer on FB thanks for your input
    M

    ReplyDelete
  4. maybe you should consider updating your profile to: a fake address and town, state. wouldn't be hard to put in address of apartment building with apt. on a floor that's not there.
    just incase some unfriendly.. thinks they need to meet directly.
    my isp gives me 5 phony email addresses just for such things.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm with Atalanta and Diana - I'm always careful with personal data, and either withhold it or (where necessary) fake it.

    I love the networking aspect of sites like Facebook, and actually came across a local transgender support group there that I wouldn't have otherwise known about. I'd hate to lose that.

    Like anything online, there are always risks, but I think the rewards are worth the efforts required to control those risks.

    ReplyDelete