How many of you use Facebook on a daily basis? As for those of you who do – do you ever bother taking the time to understand the app permissions before you choose to allow them access? If you do then great, but there is a larger number of folks who don’t and simply allow access to every app they encounter. Hence the amount of spam apps you see flooding your news feed sometimes “Click this to see who’s been stalking you!” While it’s true that not all apps are malicious or spam generating, all Facebook apps require your permission in order to have access to your friends list or your wall and so forth. Most people don’t know that and Facebook is aware of the fact. They’ve introduced an “Understand the Apps You Use” link in the Quick Tips sidebar on the website to educate people about the different permission types that apps use.
While there will be people who ignore the tips, for folks who are keen on finding out and learning when certain apps can spam their walls and their friends’ walls would do well to give it a read. In addition to informing its users about app permissions, Facebook will be cracking down on developers with apps that are suspected of leaking data. While we will never be truly free from such problems on Facebook (unless we stop using the service completely), it’s good to know that Facebook is taking measures to make life better.