Why I refuse Facebook apps access to my data

Some context…

Unfortunately, my response was – as usual – too verbose. It broke Facebook’s 1000 character Wall posting limit, so I had to find somewhere else to publish it (i.e. here) so I could link to what I wrote. Which was this:

Sorry, James – I can see part of what you posted: “I think Phil is popu…” but not the rest as I don’t allow any (third party) FB app to access my personal data. [I’m afraid Quotes fails at the first hurdle for me because, for anything other than very basic info about it, it apparently requires me to drop out of https]

I am especially reluctant to grant access when that *includes* [which means, as their privacy policy states, “including but not limited to”] my name, profile picture, gender, networks, user ID, list of friends and any other information I’ve shared with everyone; that requires me to allow it to spam my real e-mail address; which reserves the right to post status messages, notes, photos and videos to my Wall [which I’d then have to keep checking]; and whose privacy policy states: “We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time, so you should visit often to review any changes” [i.e. ‘from this point onwards we’ll do whatever the hell we want, without seeking your permission or even informing you directly of what we’ve done’].

Not so much ‘permission’ as ‘carte blanche’…

If you haven’t already, it may be worth casting your eyes over the whole policy: http://apprunner.elasticbeanstalk.com/docs/privacy.html – an indication of how appalling a system FB has become is that this can be presented in all seriousness as any sort of ‘privacy’ policy!*

Though I have to say I do ‘sort of’ appreciate their honesty: “Onoko International [?] will make reasonable efforts to secure your Personal Data from unauthorized use” – sounds like they have put about as much thought into that sentence as they will into looking after your data! (You know I prefer a more absolutist approach, e.g. “We will never share your data with anyone, and we will prosecute anyone who makes unauthorised use of the data you share with us.”)

I must confess, though, I am egotistical enough to ask what your quotation says in full 😉

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*As I’ve not bothered to publicly articulate my reasoning behind refusing app requests before, I hope you won’t mind if I finish my train of thought so I can refer (others) to it later…

I contend that Facebook is at heart little more than an environment of cleverly-designed and executed psychologically-manipulative personalised public forums with outrageously overengineered profiles and user tracking, where you surrender not just your personal data and content but moderation to automated systems and persons unknown. Treat it knowingly as such and you MAY be safe.

Facebook is clearly not (just) ‘a social network’, it is also quite clearly positioning itself to be an (the!) internet identity authority, but – like all walled gardens eventually do – it is also rapidly reaching the limits to which it can expand, which makes it especially dangerous right now.

I do not ‘play’ in or with Facebook.

Now I’m (mainly) off my NO2ID persona, I try to interact and transact with a degree of caution that may not be immediately evident.

Please don’t take this as a rant against you or how you decide to use Facebook. It isn’t. But I find it hard to express just how appalling I find this place, the more I dig into it. (And no, I won’t “just leave”, as some might suggest. When I see something this bad, I feel I have to try to understand it. Who knows? I may even decide I have to do something about it…)