

Facebook: We’re Not Giving Out Your Number - nathantross
http://mashable.com/2011/08/11/facebook-phone-numbers/

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trustfundbaby
There was a post about this months ago and I was surprised at the lack of
uproar then.

The problem I have isn't with the numbers being there, after all I'm the moron
who thought facebook would just get my friend's pictures and update my iphone
contacts with them, NOT steal my phone numbers and upload them to their
database and use them to recommend friends to me (heavy sarcasm intended) ...
no, my problem is with the fact that the link to delete these phone numbers
(this page
[http://www.facebook.com/contact_importer/remove_uploads.php?...](http://www.facebook.com/contact_importer/remove_uploads.php?r=%2Fphonebook))
DOESN'T work ... it didn't work months ago and it still doesn't work and they
don't give a damn about it, despite numerous complaints.

I had to go in this morning to delete the numbers I didn't want on there by
hand (because I was reminded by that chain status message going around)... 150
of them ... one. by. one. It wasn't annoying at all.

I'm kidding. I'm PISSED OFF, but that doesn't matter, I'm just one more
insignificant customer who will jump ship as soon as something better comes
along, but that will never happen right?

Go facebook!

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briancooley
One of the things that Reto Meier talked about at Google I/O this year is
building apps that are "Psychic," e.g., using things like Contacts on the
phone to make the user experience less painful. However, he cautioned against
being too psychic because it might make users uneasy about what else is being
accessed.

One of the things I like about the Facebook Android app (and by extension any
Android app) is that you can go to the settings and see what permissions you
granted the app when you installed it. In contrast, you can't tell whether an
iOS app can access your contacts list.

Given the recent history of Facebook with respect to privacy, I'm not
surprised that this bit of software magic was considered by the user base as
something nefarious.

~~~
michaelcampbell
> However, he cautioned against being too psychic because it might make users
> uneasy about what else is being accessed.

This is a theme I've come up against before. I worked for a company that did
e-billing. When you signed up, it would go through the list of bills it was
pretty sure were yours (because the billers would submit them, and it would
match them against your profile information), display those, and then a list
of bills that you PROBABLY had (companies that had a monopoly in your area,
bills from companies that people LIKE you had, bills most people get, etc.)
and display those under a different heading.

People _FREAKED OUT_. They'd call and wonder HOW THE HELL DO YOU KNOW WHAT
BILLS I HAVE!?, in no uncertain terms.

Eventually, we had to "mix them up" and put ALL the bills into one big
display, including bills that we were pretty certain you DIDN'T have (like
Florida utilities for a Nebraska customer), just to give the customer the
feeling that we weren't THAT psychic.

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ericb
The whole attitude behind this feature is gross. Regardless of whether the
numbers are shown publicly, just because I install an app on my phone doesn't
mean _help yourself to all my contacts_ and feel free to publish them to the
web. It doesn't matter if it is not public.

Now my contact list is susceptible if Facebook gets hacked, and further, now
governments can ask for the contacts on my phone and get them from Facebook!

