Facebook Apps: To “Allow” or not to?

Just like a lot of people today, I am an avid addicted Facebook user. It’s makes for a great break at work and provides a wonderful way to keep in touch with family and friends. Recently issues regarding Facebook’s privacy policy and how it treats user content has become more of a concern. When you post of upload something to Facebook it grants Facebook the right to use that content however they see fit. Recently there was a post floating around that discussed how to stop Facebook from using your pictures in ads. By clicking a little box you can stop this, but that doesn’t solve the overall problem. Facebook’s “Terms of Use” spells it out…

Sharing Your Content and Information You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook, and you can control how we share your content through your privacy and applicationsettings. In order for us to use certain types of content and provide you with Facebook, you agree to the following:

1. For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (“IP content”), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and applicationsettings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (“IP License”). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account (except to the extent your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it).
2. When you delete IP content, it is deleted in a manner similar to emptying the recycle bin on a computer. However, you understand that removed content may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time (but will not be available to others).

Check out that bold text. Ouch, not cool! For designers, media producers, or song writers who hold the rights to a valuable piece of work that clause has the potential to really… well… suck! Nothing controversial has happened yet regarding this issue that I’m aware of, but that does not mean it can’t.

Facebook Applications

Onto another point I’d like to make, which is my real reason for writing this post. Most people have known about the Terms of Use for a while and it is old news. Recently, however, the use of Facebook applications have been growing. You know those little quizzes like “Where will I be in 10 Years”, the Flair application, “What color is my personality?”, etc. Those are all applications. Have you ever read the little box that pops up before you use the app? I’m sure you have, and like me, didn’t really think too much about it… or didn’t care. Let me call your attention to it again…

So basically you allow all those applications to see and use your profile information. Most of the time apps are created by individuals, but the one listed above, “Declare You Major”, is not. It was produced by HP (Hewlett Packard). See the little HP logo beside the heading. I didn’t catch this at first, but once I got my results I new it had to be sponsered because it told me I need one of two HP products. “What!? Why would some general user tell me to do that?!” Then I realized who made the application and why they made it. Read this found in Facebooks Privacy Application tab…

When you authorize an application, it will be able to access any information associated with your account that it requires to work.The application can access information like your personal info and photos as well as your friends’ personal info (depending on their settings). Please note that your contact information (such as your email) is never available through Platform. All platform applications are obligated to respect all of your existing privacy settings when requesting this information and when displaying it to other users. Learn more.

 To control which applications are authorized, visit the Applicationspage. If you believe an application is violating Facebook’s privacy policies, please report it immediately. You can report an application by going to the application’s About page and clicking “Report Application” at the bottom of the page, or by clicking “Report” at the bottom of any canvas page within the application.

So before you go adding applications, consider the publisher and whether or not you want them having access to your Facebook profile and information. Go into your Facebook privacy settings, and take a look at the Application settings or just click here: http://www.facebook.com/privacy/?ref=mb#/privacy/?view=platform&tab=other. Basically, I am just posting this to encourage you to look into your privacy settings and read the information there so you better understand what you are dealing with.  The article below is a little blurp about how advertisers are going to start entering the Facebook world.

http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2009/08/05/237186/retailers-flock-to-facebook-with-e-commerce-apps.htm