Following years of complaints about the login options related to apps and services, and on the heels of its controversial Nearby Friends feature, Facebook has announced changes to their login process that includes anonymous sign in.
As a massive and profitable online business, Facebook has always been rather sell-happy with user data and information. Both their privacy and sales policies have been the target of internet advocates for awhile. Apps are among the biggest concern, as they require access to personal profile and account details for use.
Today, it was announced that three separate changes in this process will be hitting the site soon. First, and most importantly, is Anonymous Login. This is the ability to try out an app without giving any information about your account. Because so many people use social sign-up in order to avoid creating yet another in an increasing number of usernames and passwords, this kind of feature was a long time coming.
Another change will be the ability to better control the kinds of details that apps receive when you allow access to your profile. Right now, user control is pretty limited. You can restrict access in a couple of areas, such as refusing them the ability to post on your wall on your behalf. But there aren’t nearly enough ways to allow or deny rights to the apps themselves.
Now you can go line by line and say exactly what they can see and use. Which means fewer tidbits falling through the cracks that you may not have expected.
The least exciting change is the update to the app control settings. It is going to look different, with little icons set into two categories: logged in with Facebook, and logged anonymously. You can edit or delete these apps from that page.
You won’t see these changes for a couple of months. They are just rolling them out to developers to try out and improve, and it is probably going to take longer than usual updates thanks to the Heartbleed scare. Facebook isn’t likely to rush with login changes that could have a security impact if vulnerabilities are possible.
Source: Facebook Newsroom
