Facebook Increases Privacy Protection on Quiz Applications

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 27, 2009 - 9:59am.

Palo Alto, Calif. - Facebook has agreed to implement new privacy safeguards that limit the personal information that quiz authors have access to, in response to complaints from the Canadian Privacy Commissioner, and a chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

The Canadian Privacy Commissioner and ACLU say that Facebook does not vet application developers for trustworthiness, and allows them to access an alarming amount of a user's -- and that user's friends' -- personal information without express permission.

The changes Facebook is making to its privacy policy will require that applications specify the personal profile information they seek access to, and obtain express consent before any data from a user, or data from that user's friends, is shared with the application.

"Our productive and constructive dialogue with the Commissioner's office has given us an opportunity to improve our policies and practices in a way that will provide even greater transparency and control for Facebook users," said Elliot Schrage, Facebook's vice president of global communications and public policy.

http://www.priv.gc.ca/media/nr-c/2009/nr-c_090827_e.cfm

http://developers.facebook.com/news.php?blog=1&story=292

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10319297-36.html

http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_13210334?nclick_check=1

http://apps.facebook.com/aclunc_privacy_quiz/ (ACLU privacy quiz)