Facebook Installs Apps On User Profiles Without Permission In New Malware-like Behaviour

If a website you visit happened to install software on your computer behind your back

, you would not hesitate to sic your antivirus software on it or banish the website from your life forever. What happens when a major and reputable company chooses to do this? When Sony Music, several years ago placed poorly designed antipiracy software on its music CDs to have install without users' knowledge, no one hesitated in calling it malware. It remains to be seen what Facebook gets called for the way the website will now place Facebook apps in your profile without the slightest warning. The thing is, there is no easy way to stop it - you can't just make a change to your privacy settings to ask Facebook to desist.

What happens is, if you happen to be a Facebook member, and you visit websites across the Internet that have Facebook integration (ones like TechCrunch, the Washington Post or CNet) while logged in into your Facebook account, those websites will without your permission add their Facebook apps to your profile - all with no kind of intimation. As far as anyone has tried to find a setting on Facebook that will prevent websites from doing this, they've failed. The apps seem to take advantage of the latest Facebook privacy policies.

What exactly these apps know about you and pass on to Facebook isn't immediately available to learn; the profile page of each app however, does show what friends of yours have the app enabled (this could be annoying if the website with the app happened to be one that would embarrass you). The Washington Post's app, with its Facebook network news window, shows you all your friends who have taken the trouble to share any item out of the newspaper on Facebook.

Of course there is no one setting to keep these apps from spilling your personal preferences to the world. And deleting the app is temporary; the next time you visit that website it will be added all over again. You could always make sure that you are not logged in into Facebook when you visit anywhere. Or you could block the application permanently by clicking on the app's profile link and then clicking on the Block Application choice.

All of these come to you as a part of Facebook's new Open Graph API. However, the free publishing of your preferences and other such, is supposed to happen with your permission. The fact that you can have apps take over your preferences for you, is just a Facebook bug that the company hopes to correct soon.

by: Agriya

POST COMMENT

Solar Energy Source Clean Energy Save Lives How To Make Your Used Car Look Like New from Springfield Kia Scale New Heights With Celica Marketing The Best Place To Celebrate New Years 2011 Spending New Years 2011 In Los Angeles Ways To Reduce Office Waste 3 Ways a Business Plan is Like a New Car Best Exercises To Jump Higher - Exercises To Take Your Vertical To An Entirely New LLevel FDA Approves New Atrial Fibrillation Medication Waste Reduction Grants Focus On Stewardship Getting Paid to Shop Naked, the New Style Cash Back Shopping Brand New Tour Info About Oceana Deals, Ships And Fares To Spend On Your Retreat