Facebook U-turns on phone and address data sharing

Facebook appears to have U-turned on plans to allow external websites to see users’ addresses and mobile phone numbers.Security experts pointed out that such a system would be ripe for exploitation from rogue app developers.The feature has been put on “temporary hold”, the social networking firm said in its developers blog.It said it needed to find a more robust way to make sure users know what information they are handing over.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12214628Also see:Facebook retracts address and phone number API
Facebook has disabled the API that shares users’ mobile phone and address details with developers in response to a wave of what it is calling ‘feedback’, and what I’d call justified concern.A carefully worded statement on the Facebook Developer Blog listed the possible advantages of using this data in apps – speeding up the checkout process on a shopping website, for example, or allowing Groupon-type deals to be sent straight to your phone. And, the post says, users need to give permission to every app that might use that data, it won’t share friends’ details and there’s an application dashboard where every user can control how their information is used.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jan/18/facebook-privacy-data