

Facebook has your complete phonebook - ladino
https://www.facebook.com/friends/edit/?sk=phonebook
.. and this is the tip of the database-iceberg ;)
======
extension
There was a hubbub about this a while ago. How it works is, you have to
install the Facebook app on your phone and then enable contact syncing. When
you do that, you get a big confirmation screen that says this:

 _If you enable this feature, all contacts from your device (name, email
address, phone number) will be sent to Facebook and be subject to Facebook's
Privacy Policy, and your friends' profile photos and other info from Facebook
will be added to your iPhone address book. Please make sure your friends are
comfortable with any use you make of their information. [Cancel] [I Agree]_

EDIT: However, IIRC they added or strengthened this warning after the initial
controversy.

I would argue this is bad UX because it forces the user to all at once make
such a big nebulous decision about what their friends are comfortable with.

~~~
reso
Headline: "People outraged at feature they actively enabled".

~~~
pbreit
Probably a better headline is something like "People moderately surprised at
something that sorta makes sense after a reminder".

------
joeguilmette
Perhaps I'm a bit weird, but it doesn't entirely surprise or upset me. In
fact, I just found a lot of people I'd lost touch with and didn't think to
check for them on Facebook.

They should have asked, but whatever. Are you shocked? Iirc I synced my
Address Book to Facebook anyhow.

My Address Book is on Apple's server, my TimeMachine drive, Google's servers,
apparently Facebook, and any number of other online services. I don't really
care. I'd much rather have the data backed up than risk losing it. And having
it on Facebook has obvious utility.

------
freshfunk
Misleading title but scary nonetheless. It's not my complete phonebook... not
even close. But it does have numbers of friends who aren't in my phone (which
is useful and possibly OK considering they added me as friends).

Nevertheless i never explicitly opted into this which is bad.

~~~
MiguelHudnandez
It is just showing a list of friends that have put their phone numbers in
their profile. For me, it's a list of about 20% of my friends. Certainly not
contacts from my phone. I checked my phone and I had never turned on "Contact
Sync."

I don't know what else someone could think "Contact Sync" _does_. But yes, if
they ever turned that on automatically, for shame. I don't see any evidence
that they did.

------
emmett
Yes, of course I knew - they had a big flashing warning sign that they were
syncing your contacts to their cloud that you have to click through.

I actually like this a lot. If they then shared those phone numbers publicly I
would complain...but why would I not want to sync my phonebook to Facebook
(anymore than I'd not want to sync my phonebook to Google, which I certainly
do as well?)

~~~
keeperofdakeys
From what I saw, the Android doesn't seem to give any warning about _my_
contacts going to them.

------
AgentConundrum
I opened this and discovered a lot of names and phone numbers I didn't
recognize.

As it turns out, these contacts were all from my dad. I used his blackberry
once last year to check my Facebook and I guess it loaded his contacts into my
Facebook account. I don't remember authorizing it to do that (though it was
likely in something I just clicked through). Still, this seems like an easy
way to steal contact lists from people - "oh hey, can I check my Facebook real
quick?"

Like I said, this was a year ago, so I'm sure things have changed (another
commenter mentions "a hubbub about this a while ago"), but neither I nor my
dad realized what had happened until now (he still doesn't know, I suspect).

------
damoncali
You crossed a line on that one, facebook (again). It's getting really tiresome
to keep updating my settings to keep you out of my life.

This sort of thing is what keeps people from doing anything substantial on
facebook. Can you imagine "Facebook Docs", FMail, or anything of the sort? No.
Because facebook would make it all public without telling anyone.

I really believe that in the very long run, this culture of invasion will
limit facebook's potential.

I'm sure this was in the TOS somewhere, but really? It's just disrespectful.

~~~
aristus
What precisely are you upset about? I did not work on this feature, but I'm
trying to understand your reaction.

Your friends entered their phone numbers. They are your friends. You can see
those phone numbers if they choose to allow you to do so. You also (possibly)
chose to import _your_ address book of _your_ friends and Facebook is showing
them to _you_. The numbers are _not_ public and everyone involved explicitly
agreed to share the information. What part of that do you object to?

~~~
beatpanda
There are phone numbers in that list of people who aren't on Facebook, and
given Facebook's relationship with law enforcement, I'd rather they not have
them. I understood the Facebook app to be syncing information with people who
were _already on Facebook_ , not my _entire phone book._

~~~
natrius
That is absurd logic. Law enforcement has no problem getting information about
the people you contact from your phone company.

------
tty
Actually, no I did not know that and I find it hard to believe because I don't
have a Facebook account.

------
wf
This has been around for a long time... it's the phone numbers that your
friends on Facebook willingly submitted, they just make it easy for you to see
whose phone number you already have access to through Facebook without having
to go to someones profile.

~~~
brockf
No - they also take phone numbers from your phone and upload them to Facebook
(if you use a mobile Facebook app).

~~~
kalleboo
Not "if you use a mobile Facebook app", more like "If you said yes to some
option that allows them to do this". I've had the Facebook app on all my
phones the past few years (1 java, 5 android, 1 symbian), and yet I have no
phone contacts here.

------
chmars
Facebook hasn't my complete phonebook. Following your URL, I get a list of
phone numbers of some friends, not my complete phonebook, i.e., phone numbers
entered by my friends and not from my phonebook.

------
orijing
Where is this setting now?

Edit: Found it in Friends -> some arrow button on the top-right -> Sync
contacts -> Enable. So you can go there if you want to enable/disable the
feature.

When I installed the app, Facebook didn't even ask me if I wanted to enable
it. I actually manually typed all of my contacts instead. I wish I knew about
it before :(

------
01Michael10
I don't have a mobile phone so it only shows my Facebook friends who publish
their numbers. Nothing to see here...

My phone number is the only public piece of information I have on Facebook.
That's only because it's a Google voice number which is the best thing since
sliced bread.

------
anonymoushn
When you delete your facebook, all you friends who were using this will no
longer know your phone number.

------
s1rech
For the iPhone, if you want to check if you are sharing your contacts, open
the Facebook app, go to Main Menu > Friends, click the icon on the upper right
and then Sync Contacts.

I believe the syncing option is off by default

------
altano
Facebook only has phone numbers posted by my friends themselves and my Windows
Phone syncs my Facebook contacts. Bi-directional sync of your phone's contacts
back to Facebook appears to be an iOS/Android only thing.

------
jeffreymcmanus
Every iPhone application can also access your entire phone book, too.

------
dmazin
You can see specifically who has been imported and delete them here:
<http://www.facebook.com/invite_history.php>

------
dendory
I have my number in Facebook, but my friends dont see it (I checked) so this
happens only for people who actively published their phone number, or a
'friend' did it for them.

------
nysv
Wrong. I have used the facebook app on Nokia symbian phone, but I only see a
short list of friends who have shared their number. Not even close to being a
full address book.

------
lukeschlather
That's rather helpful actually. I just wish it matched my Gmail contacts. (And
since I synced both to my Droid, you would think they would match.)

------
Navarr
Most annoying. It makes no attempts to delete multiple contact data. From all
the syncing each non-facebook contact has 13 listings!

------
alantrrs
I don't think that's my _complete_ phonebook

------
sek
9 of 170 friends, not very complete.

------
sjs
Since when are submissions requiring me to register or sign in ok on HN?
Flagged.

If you wanted to make some point by posting this link you should have written
your thoughts down somewhere and linked to that instead.

------
Luuucas
it's only available if you have an iphone and use the facebook app (not sure
about android)

~~~
d0ne
No, any phone you install the Facebook App on. As Facebook has my phone
contacts. I don't own an iPhone and only use a BB.

~~~
Luuucas
thanks for the update!

------
camwest
I just turned this feature on because I didn't know the iPhone supported it.
Thanks Facebook!

------
jonknee
Glad I dumped their iOS app a while back...

------
nirvana
That's great, now how do I export all that data into AddressBook on my Mac? If
I need to call Joe, I'm not logging into Facebook to look up his number,
unless I'm desperate. I'm looking in the AddressBook. So, if Facebook wants to
be more hot than crazy on the crazy/hot graph, they should let me import this
data to my address book!

------
Kwpolska
I am happy I didn't even agree to the T&C of the facebook app forced by my
phone manufacturer.

------
t3chbrainy
fuck iphone app! is it standard opt-in?

~~~
anorwell
This comes from the "contact" section of your profile and is only shared if
you type it there yourself.

~~~
annon
No, this definitely has things that have been uploaded from my iPhone address
book.

~~~
13rules
Agree - I saw this a few days ago. When they are "syncing" their app they are
taking your phone numbers, not just using it to display photos on your phone
for your contacts, which is what I thought I remember this started out as.

