Facebook was onboard with Google’s new Friend Connect - until they looked a little closer at how the technology works. Then they suspended Google’s access to Facebook.
On the Facebook Developer’s blog post “Thoughts on Privacy” it says:
We’ve found that it [Google Friend Connect] redistributes user information from Facebook to other developers without users’ knowledge, which doesn’t respect the privacy standards our users have come to expect and is a violation of our Terms of Service.
Now the post doesn’t come out and say their thoughts are not random musings, but an announcement that they are “suspending Google Friend Connect’s access to Facebook user information” until they come into compliance. In other words, the application passes information from your Facebook profile to other sites without your knowledge.
As far as we know Google hasn’t responded but Facebook says, “We’ve reached out to Google several times about this issue, and hope to work with them to enable users to share their data exactly when and where they choose.” In the post, Facebook said they didn’t know what they were agreeing to and that there was never a formal partnership.
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