Facebook Scandal: Some websites secretly add applications to your account

Sites related to the new Open Protocol Graph automatically install an application on the Facebook profile to all their visitors. New scandal?

This information is revealed by Macworld. Sites that exploit Open Graph automatically install an application on the Facebook profile of the user when they are visited.

Recall that Open Graph is replacing Facebook Connect. It allows the exchange of information between Facebook and sites that integrate the visitors to the site and simultaneously connected social network. The goal is to provide custom navigation and interaction further, like adding a movie about Facebook profile from a sheet on IMDB.

Specifically, each site that wants to allow connection via the protocol is to create a specific application in his name. This method is popular among news sites and blogs to allow leave comments without registering. "The network of blogs Gawker, The Washington Post, TechCrunch, CNET, New York Magazine and formspring.me", for example, use the same method, according to Macworld.

Problem: This automatic installation is justified with the instant personalization enabled or voluntary self-identification is less when accessing a site as a visitor. Even so, the application is added to the profile of Internet users in the category "recently used".

No possible deactivation

Another consequence is somewhat Orwellian, a user can know which of his friends visited this site by visiting the Facebook page from the official application.

David Swain, spokesman for the network said at Macworld that this behavior is a "bug" now fixed and that "no information has been shared with such applications." No unauthorized application will now be added, he assures, even if those that are already present should be deleted manually.

After the recent disappointments on Privacy Service, this new quack can still give cause for concern.

If this "bug persists, it is impossible to prevent the automatic installation. It is always possible to remove by hand and sign out of Facebook before going on these sites. Judging between convenience and privacy so.

By AdvertisingAge, Facebook is also about to introduce the possibility of geo statutes. Additional information that Kevin Colleran, Director of U.S. sales for Facebook, said he did not see it to be monetized immediately.

McDonald's would be the already interested in new possibilities for our location-based options, including on store sales. By Mashable "This integration will involve their users by going to McDonald's and highlighting products in their publications. The digital advertising and marketing firms across the country are preparing to build campaigns around these new features."

Facebook could then quickly undermine the fragile ecosystem of location-based social, including Foursquare Brightkite or taking the lucrative market for local advertising.