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>> could authorize FB to download that data for your friends

I don’t believe this is true. You could authorize apps to download a very limited amount of info about your friends. If you have a reference to some authoritative source that proves the opposite, do share.

Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence, and all that.

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They definitely did. That's a core part of the current controversy, I shouldn't have to dig up the evidence to prove this to you. The docs are on archive.org somewhere, but this TechCrunch article was more easily found, and covers the details:

https://techcrunch.com/2015/04/28/facebook-api-shut-down/

You used to be able to provide access to your friends photos, checkins, posts and more besides.

Did it include information about a user's friends that the user themself didn't have access to? I think one can see one's friend's photos, checkins, and posts, so it makes sense that you would be able to forward that information (not that you should...). I think the grandparent was claiming that you weren't able to share any information about friends that you didn't already have access to.

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