Facebook suspends developer access to users' phone numbers and addresses after widespread criticism



It's the flip-side of enjoying instant communication with your friends.



Facebook has courted a fresh privacy row after allowing developers of apps access to sensitive information including telephone numbers and addresses.



The social networking site announced the change on its blog last Friday, saying: 'We are now making a user's address and mobile phone number accessible.'

Internet security analysts and privacy experts immediately advised people to remove their phone numbers and addresses from the site.

Privacy row: Facebook has temporarily suspended allowing app developers access to sensitive information including phone numbers and addresses following widespread criticism

Facebook yesterday responded by temporarily suspending the controversial move.

'Over the weekend, we got some useful feedback that we could make people more clearly aware of when they are granting access to this data,' wrote Facebook's Douglas Purdy in a blog post.

'We agree, and we are making changes to help ensure you only share this information when you intend to do so.

'We'll be working to launch these updates as soon as possible, and will be temporarily disabling this feature until those changes are ready.'



GOLDMAN SACHS SCRAPS EXCLUSIVE FACEBOOK SHARE OFFER

Goldman Sachs has banned super-rich American investors from participating in a private share offering expected to raise up to $1.5billion for the social networking site. The investment bank cited widespread media coverage that could run afoul of securities guidelines as being the reason for its decision. It decided to restrict the fund to prospective shareholders in Asia and Europe because it determined that the news coverage could be inconsistent with the laws that govern private placements. In a statement, Goldman Sachs said it made the decision on its own and 'believes this is the most prudent path to take'.

Although Goldman Sachs did not specify which laws it was concerned about, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has guidelines that regulate the amount of solicitation and publicity that is allowed in connection with a private placement.

While Facebook users must grant individual applications permission to access their details, it is likely that many who have clicked their approval plenty of times before would not have noticed the change in terms.

They would then pass on their contact details unknowingly, leaving them more vulnerable to becoming victims of spam, it was feared.

Graham Cluley, of IT security firm Sophos, said: 'The ability to access users' home addresses will also open up more opportunities for identity theft, combined with the other data that can already be extracted from Facebook users' profiles.

'You have to ask yourself - is Facebook putting the safety of its 500-plus million users as a top priority with this move?'

Facebook, which gives advertisers the ability to target users according to their stated interests, geographical location and other insights, has been criticised increasingly over the years for how it handles the privacy of its account holders.

Last Friday's official Facebook blog post on the subject explains that the company says: 'Because this is sensitive information, we have created the new user address and user mobile phone permissions.

'These permissions must be explicitly granted to your application by the user via our standard permissions dialogues.'

It also said that people are merely able to grant external developers the ability to see their own details, rather than those of their friends.

But it is often unclear who exactly is behind the small and seemingly harmless pieces of software available via Facebook, which many users enjoy signing up for in order to brighten up their profile pages or to play games or quizzes with friends.



Facebook founder: Mark Zuckerberg's site has been criticised increasingly over the years for how it handles the privacy of its account holders

Facebook has opted against a systematic program of vetting potential applications, such as that by Apple.

The website therefore inevitably hosts a number of potentially rogue, independent applications that have been designed by third parties to misleadingly gain access to users' information, and farm it out on as wide a scale as possible.

Last year, Facebook completely redesigned its privacy settings in response to an international backlash against how the social network had handled the personal information of its 500million users.

The modifications allowed users to decide which aspects of their data is available to view online.

