Facebook Apps – giving away identity

Colleague of mine drew my attention to the way that some Facebook Apps may not be bound by the same criteria as those scripted by Facebook. If a Facebook App requires you to leave areas of your Profile Checked to work – just ask yourself the question why? Is it really necessary to reveal that information to a third party? What are they going to do with it? Now the “smart ones” will have locked their profiles down really tight – but for others this may be just a “trawling” exercise with the “fancy app” just the honeytrap to garner the profile information.

So next time you click to accept a Facebook app ask yourself the question – do I really need to do this? Do I really want to share information about myself with loads of unknown and unconnected people? How wide do I really want my “circle of friends” to extend.

If you’ve also got annoyed by the request of a Facebook App to post on to “x” other friends before you have access to the App, just say “no thanks” – it’s not worth it. I got “caught” by a genealogy app – don’t make the same mistake! Golden rule of genealogy – don’t reveal details of living relatives. Indicating to someone else who you’re related to on Facebook breaks that golden rule.

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