Facebook: We’re Not Giving Out Your Number

There was a post about this months ago and I was surprised at the lack of uproar then.<p>The problem I have isn't with the numbers being there, after all I'm the moron who thought facebook would just get my friend's pictures and update my iphone contacts with them, NOT steal my phone numbers and upload them to their database and use them to recommend friends to me (heavy sarcasm intended) ... no, my problem is with the fact that the link to delete these phone numbers (this page <a href="http://www.facebook.com/contact_importer/remove_uploads.php?r=%2Fphonebook" rel="nofollow">http://www.facebook.com/contact_importer/remove_uploads.php?...</a>) DOESN'T work ... it didn't work months ago and it still doesn't work and they don't give a damn about it, despite numerous complaints.<p>I had to go in this morning to delete the numbers I didn't want on there by hand (because I was reminded by that chain status message going around)... 150 of them ... one. by. one. It wasn't annoying at all.<p>I'm kidding. I'm PISSED OFF, but that doesn't matter, I'm just one more insignificant customer who will jump ship as soon as something better comes along, but that will never happen right?<p>Go facebook!

One of the things that Reto Meier talked about at Google I/O this year is building apps that are "Psychic," e.g., using things like Contacts on the phone to make the user experience less painful. However, he cautioned against being too psychic because it might make users uneasy about what else is being accessed.<p>One of the things I like about the Facebook Android app (and by extension any Android app) is that you can go to the settings and see what permissions you granted the app when you installed it. In contrast, you can't tell whether an iOS app can access your contacts list.<p>Given the recent history of Facebook with respect to privacy, I'm not surprised that this bit of software magic was considered by the user base as something nefarious.

The whole attitude behind this feature is gross. Regardless of whether the numbers are shown publicly, just because I install an app on my phone doesn't mean <i>help yourself to all my contacts</i> and feel free to publish them to the web. It doesn't matter if it is not public.<p>Now my contact list is susceptible if Facebook gets hacked, and further, now governments can ask for the contacts on my phone and get them from Facebook!