Well, that was fast. A few days after giving app makers potential access to users’ addresses and phone number, Facebook has blocked this feature for the moment because of negative user feedback.
The world’s largest social network made the changes on Friday and this allowed app makers to get your phone number or address once you’ve granted permission. This was met with some outcries about privacy concerns, which is always a big subject when it comes to Facebook.
In a blog post, the world’s largest social network said:
Over the weekend, we got some useful feedback that we could make people more clearly aware of when they are granting access to this data. We agree, and we are making changes to help ensure you only share this information when you intend to do so. We’ll be working to launch these updates as soon as possible, and will be temporarily disabling this feature until those changes are ready. We look forward to re-enabling this improved feature in the next few weeks.
At the very least, this is a good sign that the social network has learned from some of its previous mistakes and is quickly reacting. At the same time, Facebook users are prone to have an “outrage” over everything, so it’s a delicate balance between pushing forward in order to keep innovating and not crossing the line with your customers.
These issues could become more prominent as the social network gets into the mobile space, which Facebook really sees as its future. The mobile versions will also have deeper access to things like your location, so it must approach the privacy angle with a lot of caution.
We’re still thinking that a Facebook phone will land sooner or later, so privacy will continue to be a major issue for the world’s largest social network.
[Via Facebook]
