When sharing information from Facebook gets out of control.
I’m trying to streamline my photo sharing process. I’d like to be able to upload a photo to Zenfolio, which is where my photo gallery resides, and then, with a few clicks, put it on Facebook and Twitter. It seems to me that since Flickr can upload to Facebook and Twitter, those few clicks might be to put photos on Flickr and have Flickr do the heavy lifting. With that end in mind, I made the first step to connect Flickr to Facebook. Here’s the dialog that appeared after logging in:
I’m displaying this image in almost full size on purpose — so you can read it. That’s what I did — and I’m pretty sure that most people don’t. Read it and you’ll learn that Yahoo! not only wants permission to post Flickr photos to my Facebook account, but it basically wants access to every single piece of information I have on Facebook, as well as information from my friends’ accounts.
Why does it need this information? Answer: It doesn’t.
What will it do with this information? Answer: Who knows? Set up direct marketing to me and my friends? Sell it? Put information about what I like or don’t like anywhere it wants on to Yahoo!? Extract information to store on its servers where I can’t see, modify, or delete it?
Who in their right mind would agree to this?
Likely, some of my Facebook friends. So now I need to go back into my Facebook account and lock down information sharing even more — just so click-happy friends don’t give MY information to Yahoo! Or other companies wanting access to everything.
Facebook should NOT allow this kind of access. There’s no reason for it. They are betraying their user’s trust.
Now I can’t take advantage of Flickr/Facebook linking because I know how to read and don’t want to share my information with another huge conglomerate. Who benefits? No one.
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It’s these crazy permission requests that have gotten me to quit using many FB applications. I rarely give any of them permission to access my data or post anymore
You can control what info is available to applications when your friends use them
From the Account Menu (upper right corner of page) – Privacy Settings
On the Privacy Settings Page – below the main box – Applications & Websites
Applications, Games, Websites Page – 2nd button is Info Accessible Through Your Friends – I’ve unchecked all the boxes
It doesn’t solve the problem of if FB changes the rules again – but at least for now – friends aren’t sharing my info every time they agree to one of the applications
@Patty Hankins
Thanks for this. I was able to go in and see which apps access which info. It’s not my info that I’m worried about — I have the minimum info online. It’s my friends’ info. That’s none of Yahoo!’s business.
I then linked Yahoo! to Facebook and went back to the Facebook application settings. Access to my friends’ info by Yahoo! is REQUIRED. I deleted the entire link. Seriously: Yahoo! has no business accessing my friends’ info.
This info is really handy; I’ll likely be checking these settings often — as I already do in Twitter — and deleting access I don’t think is necessary.
Recently, Twitter tells my Yahoo wants that same access to my Twitter account. Then, when I deny them access, I am not allowed to access my own Twitter account for quite a while.
Am I being punished? Or have I just been trying to access Twitter when it’s bogged down. The screen just doesn’t load, however. It does not say that the twittersphere is overloaded.
Not usually paranoid, but I am now.
I sure don’t have an answer for you, Lesli, but I don’t think paranoia is necessary. Likely some weird glitch, possibly due to your browser’s cache.