Why Facebook Wants Your Phone Number
Facebook wants your address and mobile phone number. But it’s not sure exactly how to ask.
It’s a complicated digital courtship, particularly because Facebook doesn’t just want this data for itself — it wants to “share” this info with all of its friends, which in this case happens to be app developers (think FarmVille, Compare People and Where I’ve Been — all that non-Facebook stuff that pops up in your news feed).
That may sound confusing, but the debate over this Facebook phone-number-sharing — which caused Facebook to backtrack a bit from the request after bloggers and users expressed outrage this weekend — essentially comes down to two related questions:
Why does Facebook want your phone number and address?
Facebook — perhaps obviously — doesn’t want to call you to chat, or stop by your house for tea. So what’s its motive for asking for these personal details?
The social network says this info helps app developers create programs and games and little social widgets that make Facebook more fun and useful.
Potential examples: A travel app could send you text messages if your flight is going to be late; a shopping app wouldn’t have to ask you where to send a gift you bought — it would just send it to your default Facebook address.
In both of these instances, the advantage is convenience. You don’t have to retype your address every time you use a shopping app.
Read the full CNN article here.
