Any Facebook App now has Unlimited Access to your Information and that of your Friends

Facebook's app developers always worked within the company's policy that no app. they designed could ever retain personal user information within for a period exceeding one full day. Developers have always chafed at this Facebook policy; an app that adheres to it has to constantly keep checking up with Facebook to keep its data fresh and recent. If an apt can remember a user's personal data forever, it could start up in instant, saving the time it would take to ping the server for it. Not anymore though. Facebook developers have learned at the F8 Facebook developers conference last month that the time limit is being scrapped. As enthusiastic as Facebook developers have been about this, how good is it really for the interests of the average user?

Facebook applications regularly have access to your entire user profile; they know about where you're from, what groups you have signed up for, and everything about your likes and dislikes that you ever listed on Facebook. The American Civil Liberties Union launched a campaign last year that tried to expose all the ways in which the creators of a simple Facebook quiz could have complete access not only to everything in your life that's on Facebook, but also to everything about anyone whom you have put down as a friend on your Facebook page. Facebook is not a site that is known to be choosy about whom it will accept as an app developer. How long can it be before an app developer with malicious intent will begin cataloguing all your information for his purposes?

Now Facebook's decision to allow app developers design permanent retention of personal information into their apps only affects the length of the period the information can be retained - it doesn't change anything about how they are allowed to make use of it. Come to think of it, the new policy doesn't even change much to do with the length of the period either - up until now, most app makers have just ignored Facebook's policies in the matter if it served them better to do so. And Facebook never checks. But still, to have Facebook giving free reign to every unvetted app maker to rifle through your personal information and keep it forever to do with as he pleases, does give cause for concern.

Facebook has nearly a half billion users; some of its most popular applications have nearly all of them among their fans - Farmville for instance nearly has 100 million users. A developer who doesn't stay on top of the security issues on an app like this, can make a really tasty target on his hands for an attacker - the attacker would hit a hundred million people all at once if he broke into that app. And in addition, commercial interests can find a great deal of information to reap on such an app even if they don't meant any real harm. Facebook has a half million apps; and it doesn't seem overly interested in seeing if they all mean well.

In the end though, there is a really easy way to deal with the threat of predatory apps on your system - any apps that hang around your computer without seeing much use, should be deleted right away. It's pretty simple too: you just need to go to Application Settings under Account at the top of your screen; you turn the Show box to Authorized, to see all the Facebook apps you have authorized. Whatever you don't use anymore, you just cross out.

This doesn't really guarantee you against any risky personal information sharing by an app maker; but it's close enough.

About Author
Zylog Systems Ltd (ZSL) is a Global Systems Integrator & Business Solutions Provider based in Edison, NJ with more than 4000 employees worldwide focused in developing Mobile App Development and delivering enterprise IT solutions and services using the emerging technology platforms to keep the TCO low and ROI high in Applicant Tracking Software

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