Facebook: We’re Not Giving Out Your Number
mashable.com
mashable.com
The problem I have isn't with the numbers being there, after all I'm the moron who thought facebook would just get my friend's pictures and update my iphone contacts with them, NOT steal my phone numbers and upload them to their database and use them to recommend friends to me (heavy sarcasm intended) ... no, my problem is with the fact that the link to delete these phone numbers (this page http://www.facebook.com/contact_importer/remove_uploads.php?...) DOESN'T work ... it didn't work months ago and it still doesn't work and they don't give a damn about it, despite numerous complaints.
I had to go in this morning to delete the numbers I didn't want on there by hand (because I was reminded by that chain status message going around)... 150 of them ... one. by. one. It wasn't annoying at all.
I'm kidding. I'm PISSED OFF, but that doesn't matter, I'm just one more insignificant customer who will jump ship as soon as something better comes along, but that will never happen right?
Go facebook!
One of the things I like about the Facebook Android app (and by extension any Android app) is that you can go to the settings and see what permissions you granted the app when you installed it. In contrast, you can't tell whether an iOS app can access your contacts list.
Given the recent history of Facebook with respect to privacy, I'm not surprised that this bit of software magic was considered by the user base as something nefarious.
This is a theme I've come up against before. I worked for a company that did e-billing. When you signed up, it would go through the list of bills it was pretty sure were yours (because the billers would submit them, and it would match them against your profile information), display those, and then a list of bills that you PROBABLY had (companies that had a monopoly in your area, bills from companies that people LIKE you had, bills most people get, etc.) and display those under a different heading.
People FREAKED OUT. They'd call and wonder HOW THE HELL DO YOU KNOW WHAT BILLS I HAVE!?, in no uncertain terms.
Eventually, we had to "mix them up" and put ALL the bills into one big display, including bills that we were pretty certain you DIDN'T have (like Florida utilities for a Nebraska customer), just to give the customer the feeling that we weren't THAT psychic.
Now my contact list is susceptible if Facebook gets hacked, and further, now governments can ask for the contacts on my phone and get them from Facebook!