Facebook’s existing partners were given a year to adopt the company’s new developer tools aimed at preventing apps from taking liberties with user data, and now that year is over. Starting tomorrow, the company will require all of its partners that have not already done so to adopt Facebook’s Login and Graph APIs.
Last year, at Facebook’s F8 developers conference, the company introduced developer tools designed to crack down on apps that took liberties with users’ Facebook account data. Apps new to the Facebook fold had to support them immediately, while existing partners got a year to embrace the changes. Now, time’s up: On Thursday, the company will flip the switch on its Login and Graph APIs (see our API explainer), making support mandatory for everyone. That means all apps that tie into Facebook must allow users to pick and choose the data outside apps can read. The company also wants to prevent apps from making extraneous or unnecessary requests for Facebook information. “We want developers to make it clear to people how their [Facebook] information’s being used,” said Facebook product manager Simon Cross, at an intimate “whiteboard” press meeting Tuesday. “And we want people to have more control over apps.”
