Security giant Sophos is advising Facebook users to remove their addresses and phone numbers from the social network, following its decision to make users' off-site contact details accessible programmatically to developers.
The move will make it easier for rogue application developers to gather personal information from users.
"This change isn't as drastic as it might first appear, because users will need to give permission for third-party Facebook applications to access this data," says Brett Myroff, CEO of regional Sophos distributor, Sophos SA.
However, given the number of rogue and scam applications already on the social network, it has potential for disaster. A lot of these applications post scam links to users' walls, direct users to survey scams and fool users into handing over their cell phone numbers to sign them up for a premium rate service.
Sophos is of the opinion that Facebook should make a more publicly visible effort to eliminate rogue application providers before making valuable and easily abused personal information available to its developer community.
"While Facebook told its alleged one million application developers how to ask users' permission to access this newly liberated data, many users don't bother reading the small print and just click without thinking of the consequences," says Myroff.
"What they've failed to do is explain how Facebook will become more safety-conscious now that it has taken this controversial step."
The security recommends that users remove their addresses and phone numbers from the site at once. “If Facebook doesn't have this information, it can't let it fall into the wrong hands or be accused of deliberately giving false information.”
In addition, Myroff says users should review all their privacy settings on the site. A guide on how to do this is available at here.
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