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There was a hubbub about this a while ago. How it works is, you have to install the Facebook app on your phone and then enable contact syncing. When you do that

There was a hubbub about this a while ago. How it works is, you have to install the Facebook app on your phone and then enable contact syncing. When you do that, you get a big confirmation screen that says this: If you enable this feature, all contacts from your device (name, email address, phone number) will be sent to Facebook and be subject to Facebook's Privacy Policy, and your friends' profile photos and other info from Facebook will be added to your iPhone address book. Please make sure your friends are comfortable with any use you make of their information. [Cancel] [I Agree] EDIT: However, IIRC they added or strengthened this warning after the initial controversy. I would argue this is bad UX because it forces the user to all at once make such a big nebulous decision about what their friends are comfortable with.

cnvogel 15y ago
I acknowledge that. I remember that the facebook-app on my android phone asked me whether I wanted to sync my phones addressbook to FB or not. I've chosen not to, and thus there are no phone-numbers FROM MY PHONE shown on the linked facebook-page, only the numbers my friends have put in themselves (some aren't even in my phone...).
- jackowayed 15y ago
  I'm pretty sure I said no when that happened, and I can't find a setting anywhere, yet that page definitely has numbers that weren't put on Facebook by the owner. I wonder if the HTC Facebook integration (I have a Droid Incredible, and I knew that there was phonebook integration in the other direction--friends show up in my phonebook if their number is on facebook even if I've never directly added them). It's possible that they either automatically did the sync or asked in a not very clear way when I first set up my phone and was dying to click through all the prompts so I could use it.
reso 15y ago
Headline: "People outraged at feature they actively enabled".
- pbreit 15y ago
  Probably a better headline is something like "People moderately surprised at something that sorta makes sense after a reminder".
- zemanel 15y ago
  "actively enabled" doesn't necessarily mean "actively conscient of the full consequences"
sehugg 15y ago
It'd be better if the warning said "sent and stored". Reading the Privacy Policy didn't give me fair warning that this info would be retained in this specific instance.
gmac 15y ago
This is more than bad UX: asking me to speak for the privacy preferences of all my Facebook friends in one go is ludicrous, and more-or-less asking to be lied to. It's like 20-page T&Cs, only worse. We all know that approximately nobody actually reads the T&Cs. But we can be damn sure that absolutely nobody will actually go and ask all their device contacts whether they're happy to have their details uploaded to Facebook.
- res0nat0r 15y ago
  How is any of this Facebooks problem let alone responsibility to sort out for you?
  - Silhouette 15y ago
    Well, for one thing, keeping personal data on people without their consent is probably illegal under most European nations' law, no matter how many of their friends tell you it's OK. This is my basic problem with Facebook's whole MO: it tries to solve the one problem no single data mining company can ever solve -- having enough resources to spy effectively on everyone -- by recruiting people's own friends to do much of the spying for it. There is something fundamentally shady about that, if you believe privacy and control of sensitive personal data have any value.
    - res0nat0r 15y ago
      Like mentioned before...you have to opt in to typing your phone number on your Facebook page, and it is visible to the people you've shared your Info page with, it doesn't get there by itself. More crying about nothing to make Facebook look evil?
      - glenngillen 15y ago
        Like mentioned before, these numbers have been imported from my phone on behalf of other people. I can assure you that my wife doesn't have her phone number in her facebook profile, yet there it is in the list. Likewise, I doubt my accountant has her PAs number on her profile yet there it is along side her FB profile along with an "add friend" link. Like mentioned before, I'd be surprised that just because I accepted the T&Cs in app that this would be permissible under EU laws if the other party hadn't consented to FB retaining their number.
patrickaljord 15y ago
I don't own a smartphone and therefore have never installed the facebook app yet I can see my list of contacts with their mobile phone numbers. My guess is that this page just lists your contacts that are sharing their mobile phone numbers with you and it has nothing to do with using the mobile Facebook app.
- user-id 15y ago
  It's both. If you have contacts on a phone that aren't your Facebook friends, they'll be merged.

cnvogel 15y ago

I acknowledge that. I remember that the facebook-app on my android phone asked me whether I wanted to sync my phones addressbook to FB or not. I've chosen not to, and thus there are no phone-numbers FROM MY PHONE shown on the linked facebook-page, only the numbers my friends have put in themselves (some aren't even in my phone...).

jackowayed 15y ago
I'm pretty sure I said no when that happened, and I can't find a setting anywhere, yet that page definitely has numbers that weren't put on Facebook by the owner. I wonder if the HTC Facebook integration (I have a Droid Incredible, and I knew that there was phonebook integration in the other direction--friends show up in my phonebook if their number is on facebook even if I've never directly added them). It's possible that they either automatically did the sync or asked in a not very clear way when I first set up my phone and was dying to click through all the prompts so I could use it.

reso 15y ago

Headline: "People outraged at feature they actively enabled".

pbreit 15y ago
Probably a better headline is something like "People moderately surprised at something that sorta makes sense after a reminder".
zemanel 15y ago
"actively enabled" doesn't necessarily mean "actively conscient of the full consequences"

sehugg 15y ago

It'd be better if the warning said "sent and stored". Reading the Privacy Policy didn't give me fair warning that this info would be retained in this specific instance.

gmac 15y ago

This is more than bad UX: asking me to speak for the privacy preferences of all my Facebook friends in one go is ludicrous, and more-or-less asking to be lied to. It's like 20-page T&Cs, only worse. We all know that approximately nobody actually reads the T&Cs. But we can be damn sure that absolutely nobody will actually go and ask all their device contacts whether they're happy to have their details uploaded to Facebook.

res0nat0r 15y ago
How is any of this Facebooks problem let alone responsibility to sort out for you?
- Silhouette 15y ago
  Well, for one thing, keeping personal data on people without their consent is probably illegal under most European nations' law, no matter how many of their friends tell you it's OK. This is my basic problem with Facebook's whole MO: it tries to solve the one problem no single data mining company can ever solve -- having enough resources to spy effectively on everyone -- by recruiting people's own friends to do much of the spying for it. There is something fundamentally shady about that, if you believe privacy and control of sensitive personal data have any value.
  - res0nat0r 15y ago
    Like mentioned before...you have to opt in to typing your phone number on your Facebook page, and it is visible to the people you've shared your Info page with, it doesn't get there by itself. More crying about nothing to make Facebook look evil?
    - glenngillen 15y ago
      Like mentioned before, these numbers have been imported from my phone on behalf of other people. I can assure you that my wife doesn't have her phone number in her facebook profile, yet there it is in the list. Likewise, I doubt my accountant has her PAs number on her profile yet there it is along side her FB profile along with an "add friend" link. Like mentioned before, I'd be surprised that just because I accepted the T&Cs in app that this would be permissible under EU laws if the other party hadn't consented to FB retaining their number.

patrickaljord 15y ago

I don't own a smartphone and therefore have never installed the facebook app yet I can see my list of contacts with their mobile phone numbers. My guess is that this page just lists your contacts that are sharing their mobile phone numbers with you and it has nothing to do with using the mobile Facebook app.

user-id 15y ago
It's both. If you have contacts on a phone that aren't your Facebook friends, they'll be merged.