Privacy of your information on Facebook has been top
news for a while, and Facebook has had to apologize for releasing information
without the consent of their members. Now, a game on Facebook has gone much
further, not only demanding access to private information before allowing
people to play, but you have to accept their terms before complaining to
Facebook. Most importantly, by agreeing to their terms, you are giving the app
developers permission to release information about you, and potentially minors
and personal relationships with people who are not even playing the game.
As shown here, Click to enlarge, the
Mob Wars application requires three points of access, or you cannot play, and
Boycott Watch questions the need for any of this information as it has nothing
to do with actual game play. "While all kinds of people play games on
Facebook, there is just no reason a game needs to know your personal email
address and who you are dating" said Fred Taub, President of Boycott
Watch. "Their demand can also reveal the type of relationship a person is
in, be it hetero or homosexual, with whom you are in such a relationship with
and other information the player may not want released. We recently saw a case
where someone committed suicide after a homosexual relationship was revealed,
and this app wants your email address too, potentially advertising your
personal information and even using the personal information to solicit, via
email, sexually inappropriate items to Facebook members, including to
minors."
Boycott Watch believes people have the right to secure
private information. Most people just press the 'allow' or 'agree' button
without reading the details. In this case, there is no reason a game would need
personal information other than wanting to target the game player with
advertisements geared toward their sex, age and personal relationship
information. It is the same as cyber-fishing for information, and in this case
getting people to opt-into their lists, not realizing their personal
information can be used to be sent spam emails.
Boycott Watch believes this is a fundamental violation of
personal privacy, including the new Facebook privacy rules. Boycott Watch
President Fred Taub sent a complaint to Facebook and the app developers but has
yet to receive a response.
We will post a follow-up. |
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