Facebook Applications now tell what Private Data is Shared

Facebook is rolling out a new feature that requires 3rd party applications to inform users exactly what parts of their profiles will be shared to make the applications work.

Applications already had to ask for user permission to access anything in their profiles that wasn’t public. But these apps didn’t actually have to specify what information they were using to the user. This included information like photos, your friends’ birthdays, e-mail address and contact info.

Under the new policy by Facebook, the 3rd party applications will say which aspects of a profile they will pull data. The user cannot disallow certain aspects of information from being used by the app – they have to either grant permission or disallow the app from working in entirety.

Due to criticism and the site’s growth from a small network for universities and college students, Facebook privacy settings have seem to become complicated for average users.

As a result, lately Facebook has rolled out a raft of privacy setting updates to make the privacy settings more user-friendly and configurable to its users.