Facebook has come a long way since its launch as a social network for college students. One of the biggest steps forward for the platform was the introduction of apps. These apps have been at the core of the company’s massive growth, but they do pose a bit of a security concern, especially since many of them request access to your profile and contact information. In an effort to curb this, Facebook has introduced two new login features.
Anonymous login
What is interesting about apps on Facebook is the way people use them. For the most part, they add an app because their friends are talking about it and they want to check it out too. Most of the time however, we don’t really stick with apps and instead quickly move onto another app. The problem with this is that all of these apps are asking for access to at least some information on your profile.
Most people who want to try an app usually would rather not have to share their profile information for privacy reasons. In an effort to increase account privacy, Facebook has announced the anonymous login feature. This will let you log into different apps using your Facebook username and password without sharing your personal information.
For example, if you want to use your Facebook account to access Flipboard you can login anonymously and link your account to Flipboard, but your personal information like name, email address, contact number, etc. will not be shared. This feature will also make it so the app cannot post on your News Feed. In other words, say goodbye to those annoying game invites!
This feature has been released on Facebook’s side, but the company is still working with app developers to get the feature integrated into their apps. Over the next year or so we should see more and more apps integrate this great privacy feature.
Line by line control for Facebook login
An increasing number of apps are allowing users to log in using their Facebook account and password. Think of any app or even some sites you have recently used, or visited, and chances are you’ve seen the ‘Log in with Facebook’ button. Pressing this will link your Facebook account to the app, and then bring up a window asking you to allow the app to access certain information on your Facebook profile.
This information can include your username, email, friend list, birthday, Likes, etc. It also often includes another option to allow the app to post to Facebook on your behalf. While app developers certainly have the right to ask for this information, some users feel that apps often ask for too much private information. So, in an effort to tighten up privacy, the company has updated their Facebook app login. Now, when you go to log into an app using your Facebook account you can select what information is shared.
Click Log in with Facebook on many apps and you should see the usual permission window open, only now you should see a link that says ‘Edit the info you provide‘. Clicking this will bring up a list of permissions the app is requesting.
You will see check marks beside each line of permission. Many of these are actually optional, and you can now uncheck them to prevent that specific information from being shared. Also, by default, apps will no longer be able to post to Facebook on your behalf. You will need to approve this when you first connect to the app.
These two features are a great boost to account privacy. If you are looking to learn more about using them effectively contact us today to see how we can help.