Thought cancelling your Facebook account would keep your personal information private? Guess again.
You may not even need an account for Facebook to know your home or work phone number.
The social networking site is once again drawing criticism from its users, this time for collecting information from mobile phones.
Using Facebook’s smartphone app allows it to access phone numbers from contacts lists, even those belonging to people who don’t have a Facebook account.
Downloading the app and allowing Facebook to sync with your phone will import all of your contacts.
Having access to the phone numbers of your friends, family and colleagues gives you “the best possible experience,” the Facebook website says.
Rumours began to spread earlier this week that Facebook was providing third-party advertisers with personal contact information.
A post circulated warning users they need to change their account setting to keep Facebook from providing third-party advertisers with your contacts numbers.
The post reads:
“ALL YOUR PHONE CONTACTS are on Facebook! Go to top right of the screen, click on ACCOUNT, click on EDIT FRIENDS, left side of screen and click CONTACTS. See ALL phone #s from your phone (FB friends or not). TO REMOVE, go to RIGHT column, click on THIS PAGE. Reset FB settings on your phone and click “Remove” on screen. It takes a while. IMPORTANT-you MUST also change the settings on your smartphone’s settings, or they will just sync back into FB. Pass it on, let us choose what we share.“
The company insists this has always been a feature and that only you can see the phone numbers.
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Facebook spokesperson Meredith Chin told the New York Times Gadgetwise blog the Contacts list, which was previously called Phonebook, has been a feature for “quite some time.”
“Rumors claiming that your phone contacts are visible to everyone on Facebook are false,” Chin said.
But like many Facebook features that cause an uproar, users have to remove the option to import phone contacts after the fact and no distinct warning is given about what the site is accessing when you give the app permission to sync to your mobile device.
By Friday afternoon, more than 9,700 people had commented on a post Facebook made on its own page about the syncing issue.
Many were outraged about the possibility accounts could be hacked or that it was tantamount to spying.
“Given the history of fb, even after my business contacts are deleted from fb, I don’t believe fb is deleting them from the server cause they can use them as marketing data,” user Brian Wsyszynski wrote.
“I am on the edge of trashing this form of social networking as it is becoming more of a problem than a help,” writes Donna K. Westphalen. “Thanks but NO THANKS FB!! Stay out of my personal information!“
Several frustrated individuals said they never opted to sync the Facebook app with their phone, while others said the app was already installed on the device when they got it and claimed it couldn’t be removed.
Yet again, users are calling for a Facebook boycott day on Monday – a threat that usually doesn’t have much of an impact on the site or its founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg.
Facebook has come under fire repeatedly for its under-the-radar changes and updates to privacy settings.
Canada’s Privacy Commissioner took on Facebook, in 2009, following an investigation to determine if the social network complied with the country’s privacy laws.
Jennifer Stoddart said, at the time, her office found “serious privacy gaps in the way the site operates.
A spokesperson from the Privacy Commissioner’s office said Friday the department would be keeping an eye on this latest issue.
Anne-Marie Hayden said the Commissioner is monitoring the situation and has received several calls about it from the public, but there is no official investigation into the matter yet.
Hayden says there are many factors to consider in determining whether something is a breach of Canada’s privacy laws, but when it comes to social networking sites the Commissioner emphasizes the need for people to have a choice and control over their personal information and the clarity around the implications of sharing the information.
Facebook has posted instructions to remove contacts that have been imported from your mobile device.
Remove Imported Contacts
Imported contacts are displayed on your Invites and Imported Contacts page and synced mobile contacts are displayed in your Facebook Phonebook. Contacts may be used to improve the quality of friend suggestions for you and your friends.
If you remove imported and synced contacts:
Friend suggestions for you and your friends may become less relevant.
Your phonebook will no longer include synced contacts, but will still display the contact info of friends who have included it on their profiles.
Note: Before you click Remove, you need to make sure syncing is switched off.
To do this, open the Facebook application on your iPhone, click the Friends icon in the main menu, then click Sync in the upper-right.
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