San Francisco — Despite criticism from privacy advocates, users and even congressmen, popular social media network Facebook Inc., resolutely moving forward with an aborted roll-out of a controversial feature that allows third-party websites and applications request addresses and mobile-phone numbers from users, a feature that had prompted privacy questions from U.S. Lawmakers.
So far, the social media behemoth is still processing its permissions-based app system regarding user phone numbers and addresses, but it has not determined when it will reintroduce the feature but is evaluating ways to “enhance user control,” including “potential additions to the permissions screen,” that would make it more obvious to the user about how apps are accessing personal information.
Responding to a letter penned by Representatives Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Joe Barton (R-Texas) expressing apprehension over the new functionality, Facebook reiterated that it will be allowing third parties to request access to users’ addresses and phone numbers.
“We are evaluating potential additions to the permissions screen that would appear when an application requests a user’s contact information, in order to ascertain whether those additions would render even clearer notice to users regarding the information the application is requesting,” Marne Levine, vice president of global public policy at Facebook, wrote in a Feba letter to Reps. Edward Markey and Joe Barton.
Last month, Facebook silently announced the new policy in a note posted to its Developer Blog. It suspended the feature just three days later following user outburst, while promising that it would be “re-enabling this improved feature in the next few weeks.”
Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, and Barton, a Republican from Texas, dispatched a letter Feb. 2 to Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg asking about the company’s plans for the feature.
“Mobile phone numbers and personal addresses, especially those that can identify teenagers using Facebook, require special protection,” Markey said in a statement today.
“I’m pleased that Facebook’s response indicated that it is considering to enhance its process for highlighting for users when they are being asked for permission to share their contact information,” he said.
Facebook’s Levine specifically stressed in the letter that it is evaluating enforcing controls that would more clearly highlight the personal nature of the information being transmitted to applications and explained it is “actively considering” whether to restrict users under 18 years old from sharing their contact information with third-party developers. Facebook is open to anyone 13 and over.
“We expect that, once the feature is re-enabled, Facebook will again permit users to authorize applications to obtain their contact information,” Facebook’s Levine, wrote in the letter to Reps. Markey and Barton. “However, we are currently evaluating methods to further enhance user control in this area.”
For example, Levine wrote, “a photo-printing application that prints photos for a user requests permission specifically to access a user’s photo; a social-gaming application that allows users to play a game with his or her friends requests permission to access the user’ friends list.”
Barton, said that “people enjoy the games and applications that Facebook offers, but taking advantage of them should not jeopardize a user’s privacy. Facebook has a responsibility to their customers not just the third party vendors it associates with. I hope they continue to improve protection of users’ private information.”
Nevertheless, Facebook has attempted to tread a fine line with regard to privacy issues even as it has continuously pushed users to share more information, both on Facebook and beyond the social network.
Interestingly, the plan to implement users’ address and phone numbers to third-party sites and services marks the latest frontier in Facebook’s often controversy-packed efforts to inspire users to be more liberal in sharing their data and online activity.
Furthermore, even if the revamped feature were to include improved notifications and protections for minors, privacy experts warn the feature could imperil users’ personal information and increase their risk of being targeted by scams, spam, and identity thieves.