Not too long ago I got a message from ‘a friend’ on facebook stating that he knew my telephone number.
Jokingly I asked him to tell me how he got it. “From Facebook”, he told me. Surprised as I was, I started to investigate this and to my horror my telephone number is entirely visible for everyone. How do I know ? Well, check this out:
1) On your facebook main screen, go to the top right, and click on ‘Account’
2) Click on ‘Edit Friend’
3) On the left top click on ‘Contacts’
You now have a complete list of all phonenumber of all your contacts who filled it in on facebook.
Needless to say I immediately removed my telephone number. My questions are: Is this normal? Has this always been in facebook ? If yes, I’d say this is a huge privacy issue. If not, it still is huge privacy issue.
There is no warning whatsoever that when you fill in your number everyone can read it. I think a warning should be there, at least…with large red, blinking letters…
Whomever at facebook decided that telephone numbers are freely accessible for all your contacts deserves a spanking to say the least…
// Rick
PS. I am aware this is not a (Free)BSD or UNIX/Linux article. However, the privacy issues are important enough to justify writing about this matter in my blog, imho…
