Facebook gives users more control over private data when logging in apps

Facebook promises to give users more control over what private data they share with apps once they log in with their Facebook account. There will also be an option to log in to apps anonymously so that even the account is not known.

The new login option is especially interesting for advertisers, although Facebook promises the necessary privacy protections. From now on, Facebook apps such as Spotify and Flipboard would no longer put things on Facebook users’ timelines without explicit permission, Facebook says. In addition, users can indicate what information they want to share with an app, such as the friends list, likes and more. For each part, users can indicate whether they want to share it with the app, which happens when logging in.

In addition, there will be an option to log in anonymously, so that users do not share any information at all with the maker of the app. Facebook explicitly mentions this as an option if users are not yet familiar with an app. The developer seems to have to build in the option themselves.

The new login options will gradually become available in the coming months. Facebook announced the changes at its own developer conference f8. There, Facebook also announced that developers can build a Like button in their mobile app; until now that was not possible.