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by saytheobvious 5933 days ago
You are sorely mistaken. With the Facebook API, you're granted CIA level information on any person that allows you (most). I should know, I've been using the api for games and other apps since its inception. As for privacy, I'm convinced people can afford to give some up, in exchange for more civility, if that's what they want. If not, they can continue to enjoy the Smörgåsbord over at CR.
1 comments
tjogin 5933 days ago
I'd love to just take your word for it, but for the sake of the discussion, would you please expand a bit on what "CIA level" information you can retrieve using the Facebook API?

To begin with, what can you find out about a person after they've logged in with Facebook Connect, without explicitly asking for additional permissions?

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saytheobvious 5933 days ago
To start with: http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/User_(FQL)

If that isn't everything you need, you could use that information as foreign keys to other databases in other places, to easily fill in the blanks, if you wished to dampen the shade of your hat. As far as "CIA level", I'll admit that was sensationalist just for the sake of writing, but it is damn scary nonetheless.

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tjogin 5933 days ago
Right. But, if you are sensitive to privacy issues (which seems sound), you're not likely to have an exhaustively filled out Facebook profile either way.

So, if you have a sparingly filled out Facebook profile, what is the risk involved using Facebook Connect?

That API list kind of looks like a CIA-like dossier of information, I agree, but that's worth nothing if the values are mostly: "", drivel, some inside joke, or whatever.

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