Jan 18, 2011 09:00 GMT  ·  By
Facebook no longer allows third-party developers to access mobile phone numbers or addresses
   Facebook no longer allows third-party developers to access mobile phone numbers or addresses

In a rare move, Facebook is backing off and has announced that it will be disabling a new API feature which enabled developers to ask for access to users' private data. Facebook will be redesigning the feature in order to make it clearer for users what they are sharing, due to the sensitive nature of the information.

Facebook's regard for user privacy came under scrutiny again over the weekend after the social network revealed that it will enable third-party developers to access sensitive user data such as mobile phone numbers and home address, with the user's permission.

Since most users don't spend too much time reading the permission notifications, the worry was that most people would have no idea that they were sharing information they would probably not have with third-parties they may or may not trust.

Shady developers could and most likely would have taken advantage of this. Thankfully, after plenty of criticism, Facebook realized that bundling these permissions with all of the rest is not a good idea.

"On Friday, we expanded the information you are able to share with external websites and applications to include your address and mobile number," Facebook writes.

"As with the other information you share through our permissions process, you need to explicitly choose to share this data," it explained.

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

Mobile phone numbers and addresses could prove useful for developers in a number of cases. Local services, shopping sites, notification services and many others could take advantage of the data to enhance their products.

So there is clearly value in making this info available to third-parties, for Facebook, the developers and users.

But permission notification is often overlooked by Facebook users. There's usually a long list of permissions for every app. Many users don't know what they actually mean or why an app needs them.

Even the ones that read them may decide to trust the app maker. Even if they don't necessarily trust the app, they will take a leap of faith just to access the app they want.

Facebook initially intended to have permissions for phone numbers and addresses included in the already crowded list. This would have, undoubtedly, lead to a lot cases where users didn't really know what they are sharing.

Facebook is now redesigning the feature to make the permission notification stand out in some way. Until then, the functionality is disabled.

"We’ll be working to launch these updates as soon as possible, and will be temporarily disabling this feature until those changes are ready. We look forward to re-enabling this improved feature in the next few weeks," Facebook said.