Facebook Is Shutting Down Its API For Giving Your Friends’ Data To Apps

It was always kind of shady that Facebook let you volunteer your friends’ status updates, checkins, location, interests and more to third-party apps. While this let developers build powerful, personalized products, the privacy concerns led Facebook to announce at F8 2014 that it would shut down the Friends data API in a year. Now that time has come, with the API shutting down, and few other changes happening on April 30.

Today Facebook assembled journalists in San Francisco to discuss the rhetoric behind the change.

Some users will see it as a positive move that returns control of personal data to its rightful owners. Just because you’re friends with someone, doesn’t mean you necessarily trust their judgement about what developers are safe to deal with. Now, each user will control their own data destiny.

On the other hand, some developers will have significantly change how their apps work, or shut them down all together. For example, Job Fusion relied on the ability to pull where a user’s friends work to show them job openings at that company. Now Job Fusion is shutting down.

Along with the friends data API change, Facebook is now requiring all apps to use its new login system that gives users more granular control over what data they give developers. Previously, users provided all their data and permissions in two big screens. One for all personal info, and one for the ability for an app to post to Facebook on your behalf. Now apps must offer a checklist of all the data and permissions they’re asking for, including friend list, Likes, email address, and the ability to post to the News Feed.

Overall, the changes could boost confidence in Facebook’s platform and the social network itself, which has struggled in the past with a reptutation for spotty privacy. And while developers might not like it, Facebook tried to give them as much warning as possible.

We’ll have more from Facebook soon, as the press conference is on-going.

from TechCrunch http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/O0Kw8ygRN30/
via IFTTT