Old Apps Can Pose Privacy Risks for Facebook Users and Their Friends
People who own a Facebook account since before April should remove older apps and install new versions, because they still have unrestricted access to a wealth of information about them and their friends.
Back in April, Facebook announced a new data control system where users would be notified at install of how an application needs to interact with their account and information in order to work properly.
This allows people to weigh in the privacy versus functionality trade-off of certain apps and was part of the company's work with the Canadian Privacy Commissioner.
The new permissions dialog became mandatory starting June 1, 2010, but it didn't affect the access granted to already installed apps.
While Facebook was clear about this aspect with developers, it failed to include it in their announcement to users.
"Nothing will change for your existing users; you will retain the same level of data access you had before. For new users who see the new permissions dialog once you enable it, you will have access to all the data you request," the company told developers at the time.
Vanessa Dennis of PBS NewsHour points out that not only do older apps retain extensive access to data they don't actually need, but they also don't update themselves to newer versions that follow the improved data sharing model.
For example, the old YouTube App has access to a user's basic information (name, profile picture, gender, friends list, etc.), their profile information (likes, music, tv, movies, activities and so on), their contact information, details about their family and relationships, their photos and videos, posts in their news feed, as well as their friends' information. In addition, it can also post on their wall.
By comparison, the latest version of the YouTube App only needs access to basic information, news feed, to post on walls and to access the data at any time.
People can check and remove their old apps by going to Account > Privacy Settings > Apps and Websites. Clicking on any apps listed there will detail their level of access. The listing also provides a helpful indication of how old an app is.
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