OK, Facebook members, time to take a deep breath. We know Facebook's kind of stealthy revelation on Friday night that it would allow third party apps access to your mobile phone number and address (with your permission) probably upset you, if you were paying attention. But after users expressed their displeasure with it this weekend, the social network has decided to suspend that ability — for now.
A post on Facebook's Developer Blog by Jeff Bowen, who handles platform developer relations for the company, said that Facebook was "now making a user's address and mobile phone number accessible as part of the User Graph object," and acknowledged that this was "sensitive information" that has to be approved by the user, using the now ubiquitous "standard permissions dialog" box that most of us see when asked to allow a third party app access to our Facebook info.
But judging by the example given on the post, it's easy enough to overlook when the average Facebook user has become conditioned to clicking "Allow" on those permissions. (How many people do you know who always read the fine print, every time?)
While 828 people "liked" the post, the comments below it show the tide turned quickly, prompting Facebook to retreat and take back this action last night at 11:25 p.m. in a post by Douglas Purdy, director of developer relations.
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