Facebook Connect has removed Google Friend Connect from its data sharing system following what Facebook describes as breaches in privacy issues. Facebook’s news release stated:
Now that Google has launched Friend Connect, we’ve had a chance to evaluate the technology. We’ve found that it redistributes user information from Facebook to other developers without users’ knowledge, which doesn’t respect the privacy standards our users have come to expect and is a violation of our Terms of Service. Just as we’ve been forced to do for other applications that redistribute data in a way users might not expect or understand, we’ve had to suspend Friend Connect’s access to Facebook user information until it comes into compliance.
Facebook have not stated exactly how this data was shared although the previous sentence to the above quote stated: “In the past, when we found applications passing user data to another party (for instance, to ad networks for the purpose of targeting)….” Clearly, Facebook are not happy with the potential use that Google do with this data.
It seems that Facebook have tried to negotiate with Google but to little effect with the statement:
We’ve reached out to Google several times about this issue, and hope to work with them to enable users to share their data exactly when and where they choose.
Perhaps Google feels it doesn’t need to add Facebook to its social network. Whilst data sharing by users may have many pluses, the big issue of data security and privacy must be a primary factor. Google, perhaps the worlds largest advertising agency, could capitalize heavily if it had open access to Facebook or MySpace data.
Fortunately Facebook have been on the ball and aware of any ramifications in the misuse of private information. Hopefully Google will come to the same conclusion and work to protect everyones privacy.
