Mobile numbers, addresses on Facebook 'a security risk'
Forwarded message from M. V.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Mobile numbers, addresses on Facebook 'a security risk'
ANI
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Sydney, Jan 17 (ANI): A security expert has warned that users should
remove their home addresses and phone numbers from their Facebook
accounts.
Graham Cluley said the website now gives third parties access to that
information.
The website said in a blog post at the weekend that it would give
developers of applications access to the contact information of users
who install their apps.
"These permissions must be explicitly granted to your application by
the user via our standard permissions dialogs. Please note that these
permissions only provide access to a user's address and mobile phone
number, not their friend's addresses or mobile phone numbers," the
Sydney Morning Herald quoted Facebook's Jeff Bowen as saying.
However, Sophos security expert Cluley, has raised doubts over the
move.
"You have to ask yourself - is Facebook putting the safety of its
500+ million users as a top priority with this move?" he said.
"It won't take long for scammers to take advantage of this new
facility, to use for their own criminal ends."
Cluley advised that users should take personal info such as home
addresses and mobile numbers off their pages.
"You can imagine, for instance, that bad guys could set up a rogue
app that collects mobile phone numbers and then uses that information
for the purposes of SMS spamming or sells on the data to cold-calling
companies," he said. (ANI)
End of forwarded message from M. V.
Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti
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MOBILE NUMBERS, ADDRESSES ON FACEBOOK 'A SECURITY RISK' 
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