Facebook privacy proves not so private...again [View All]

[marmar]

Tuesday - 3/1/2011, 1:09pm ET
Evan Haning, wtop.com


WASHINGTON -- Facebook is moving the boundaries of privacy again, with plans to give third-party developers permission to ask social network users for their home addresses and phone numbers.

For now, Facebook users will have to agree to developers' requests for their offline, personal information.

But privacy advocates and elected officials worry that Facebook is again encouraging people to share intimate information with friends, then allowing it to be sold for commercial purposes, the Huffington Post reports.

"(Scammers) might be able to impersonate you if they had your phone number. They're saying, 'Please give us your phone number,' but they're not telling you whether they'll share it or whether they'll sell it for malicious purposes," says Norman Sadeh-Koniecpol, a professor at the Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.wtop.com/?nid=41&sid=2290041