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Assume that from the landing page you can be confident that none of your personal information will be shared and that the application will never post anything t

by Towle_ 16y ago

Assume that from the landing page you can be confident that none of your personal information will be shared and that the application will never post anything to your wall, etc. I wouldn't assume that. By default, I would be skeptical. I can't just trust you because you say you're trustworthy. That's why I don't use FB Connect. Well, that's half the reason. The other half is, I don't want FB to have a profile of a bunch of sites I'm a regular user on. I want to be able to say and do things on those sites that I wouldn't do on FB. Like this: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1641266 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1641266 edit: Good luck! Maybe I'm an outlier and it won't hurt much. But like I said, it's easily the best choice of those you have available to you.

onwardly 16y ago
I understand where you're coming from, but it also sounds like you share some common misperceptions about FB Connect. For one, before you login with FB Connect, it tells you exactly what the application is requesting your permission to do. If the application wants permission to post to your wall, FB tells you upfront that it is requesting that. So you don't have to believe my words- when you click to login you'll see that the only information requested is just your basic profile information. Nothing else. Regarding FB having a profile, I don't quite understand this. For one, FB doesn't know what you're doing on my site. All it knows is that you signed into my site. But Facebook can't really "do" anything with that info. It can't post on your wall that you logged into my site, it doesn't have access to any of your activity on my site, etc. Thanks for the good wishes. I don't think you're that much of an outlier, but I think a lot of that has to do with how poor of a job Facebook has done explaining Facebook Connect. I'm expecting that over time, people will increasingly understand how it works and be less suspicious. Maybe.
- arn 16y ago
  "it also sounds like you share some common misperceptions about FB Connect." I suspect it's not just a "common" but overwhelming misperception. In fact, before reading what you wrote here, I didn't know that's how it worked. I am an intermittent/casual facebook user, and use it only for real personal connections. As a result, I never log into any website or iphone app that offers facebook login, for exactly the concerns listed above. The rules also seem to change over time, so just to be certain, I won't use it.
- Towle_ 16y ago
  arm: The rules also seem to change over time... This is one of my main concerns, onwardly. While I acknowledge that I as the user must give permission for the application to access different kinds of information, FB also changes their privacy terminology/definitions and user agreements too often for me to feel safe about it. While I'm confident FB themselves won't sell users' data to third parties because it's not worth it to them from a risk/reward standpoint, I can't be sure about smaller websites who'd be capable of getting away with it if sneaky enough. One last thing: I think it's important to note that I honestly wouldn't even look at what information is being requested. I would just hit the back button if FB Connect were required. If others are the same, that's a big barrier to have. But I think I've seen sites immediately jump to the permission request stage, which would eliminate that barrier. If the user is reading the request where they otherwise wouldn't, your overall stats will be much improved. (Maybe you're already doing that. If so, just ignore me and my ramblings. But I haven't seen all that often.)
- dedward 16y ago
  It knows that I signed into your site. That's one too many things I want facebook to know - it's not their business. So I'd say yes- subjectively, I would not sign up for any site that required me to use my facebook credentials logged in. I also tend to avoid sites that try to lure me into this option even if others are available. I like my accounts separate. They are records that can be subpoena'd and data mined, and correlated, to show that I was on your site, and then, over to facebook, they can find out a whole lot MORE about me - so yeah, I'd say it would scare away a lot of people (at least in this crowd) OTOH - it might be wildly successful if your target audience is the regular sheeple :)
- dotcoma 16y ago
  to me, it sounds like you're over-rationalizing this. The average user is either going to say "fuck, yeah, who cares" or "no way, they want to steal my data".
- auxbuss 16y ago
  Perception is everything. That's people's reality. We can rationalize until the cows come home, but that won't change anyone's perception. For that, you must convince them, individually. The problem is not, I believe, Facebook's inability to explain some service of theirs, it's the fact -- and I mean fact -- that they have repeatedly changed the rules regarding privacy of information in their favour. Because of this, they have lost trust. By associating your business strongly with Facebook -- if it's the only authorization option -- you will be perceived similarly. Thus, anyone who doesn't trust Facebook will most likely not use your service. But that's just my perception.
prodigal_erik 16y ago
> I want to be able to say and do things on those sites that I wouldn't do on FB. This. I don't use any forums that expect my True Name, because I would self-censor all controversial opinions, making participation a waste of time. This is also why I only post fluff on FB itself. Venues like this are where I can be honest (without first developing a close and trusting relationship with literally every member).

by Towle_ 16y ago

onwardly 16y ago

I understand where you're coming from, but it also sounds like you share some common misperceptions about FB Connect. For one, before you login with FB Connect, it tells you exactly what the application is requesting your permission to do. If the application wants permission to post to your wall, FB tells you upfront that it is requesting that. So you don't have to believe my words- when you click to login you'll see that the only information requested is just your basic profile information. Nothing else. Regarding FB having a profile, I don't quite understand this. For one, FB doesn't know what you're doing on my site. All it knows is that you signed into my site. But Facebook can't really "do" anything with that info. It can't post on your wall that you logged into my site, it doesn't have access to any of your activity on my site, etc. Thanks for the good wishes. I don't think you're that much of an outlier, but I think a lot of that has to do with how poor of a job Facebook has done explaining Facebook Connect. I'm expecting that over time, people will increasingly understand how it works and be less suspicious. Maybe.

arn 16y ago
"it also sounds like you share some common misperceptions about FB Connect." I suspect it's not just a "common" but overwhelming misperception. In fact, before reading what you wrote here, I didn't know that's how it worked. I am an intermittent/casual facebook user, and use it only for real personal connections. As a result, I never log into any website or iphone app that offers facebook login, for exactly the concerns listed above. The rules also seem to change over time, so just to be certain, I won't use it.
Towle_ 16y ago
arm: The rules also seem to change over time... This is one of my main concerns, onwardly. While I acknowledge that I as the user must give permission for the application to access different kinds of information, FB also changes their privacy terminology/definitions and user agreements too often for me to feel safe about it. While I'm confident FB themselves won't sell users' data to third parties because it's not worth it to them from a risk/reward standpoint, I can't be sure about smaller websites who'd be capable of getting away with it if sneaky enough. One last thing: I think it's important to note that I honestly wouldn't even look at what information is being requested. I would just hit the back button if FB Connect were required. If others are the same, that's a big barrier to have. But I think I've seen sites immediately jump to the permission request stage, which would eliminate that barrier. If the user is reading the request where they otherwise wouldn't, your overall stats will be much improved. (Maybe you're already doing that. If so, just ignore me and my ramblings. But I haven't seen all that often.)
dedward 16y ago
It knows that I signed into your site. That's one too many things I want facebook to know - it's not their business. So I'd say yes- subjectively, I would not sign up for any site that required me to use my facebook credentials logged in. I also tend to avoid sites that try to lure me into this option even if others are available. I like my accounts separate. They are records that can be subpoena'd and data mined, and correlated, to show that I was on your site, and then, over to facebook, they can find out a whole lot MORE about me - so yeah, I'd say it would scare away a lot of people (at least in this crowd) OTOH - it might be wildly successful if your target audience is the regular sheeple :)
dotcoma 16y ago
to me, it sounds like you're over-rationalizing this. The average user is either going to say "fuck, yeah, who cares" or "no way, they want to steal my data".
auxbuss 16y ago
Perception is everything. That's people's reality. We can rationalize until the cows come home, but that won't change anyone's perception. For that, you must convince them, individually. The problem is not, I believe, Facebook's inability to explain some service of theirs, it's the fact -- and I mean fact -- that they have repeatedly changed the rules regarding privacy of information in their favour. Because of this, they have lost trust. By associating your business strongly with Facebook -- if it's the only authorization option -- you will be perceived similarly. Thus, anyone who doesn't trust Facebook will most likely not use your service. But that's just my perception.

prodigal_erik 16y ago

> I want to be able to say and do things on those sites that I wouldn't do on FB. This. I don't use any forums that expect my True Name, because I would self-censor all controversial opinions, making participation a waste of time. This is also why I only post fluff on FB itself. Venues like this are where I can be honest (without first developing a close and trusting relationship with literally every member).