Facebook unnecessarily grants third-party application developers access to users' information, according to a study conducted by University of Virginia student researcher Adrienne Felt.
Felt looked at the social networking site's 150 most popular applications, which allow users to share photos, play games and engage in time-wasting activities. According to the study, 8.7 percent of Facebook applications did not need any information; 82 percent needed public data such as a user's name, network and list of friends; and 9.3 percent needed private information such as a user's birth date to function.
Facebook notifies users that their information will be available to application developers when they download an application, but not all users realize they do not need to share some information for the programs to work.
"I guess it's my na'veté, but I assume they're using that information for the sake of the program and not for spying or snooping," said Jon Weakley, a sophomore in the School of Public Affairs.
Weakley said he added applications to his Facebook page after friends invited him to use them.
Identity thieves or marketing researchers could potentially obtain the information, according to Felt.
"A company might want to learn the habits of users with high degrees of social influence," Felt said in an e-mail. "I don't think [users] realize that there's nothing keeping these third-party applications from abusing the data."
Facebook requires developers to enter into an agreement limiting how they use the data before adding a new application to the site.
"I feel like Facebook would terminate [developers'] licensing agreement if they found out about [misuse of data]," said Gus Zimmerman, a sophomore in the School of Public Affairs.
David Johnson, a professor in the School of Communication, said any information companies find out about users on Facebook would be inconsequential compared to the information already available through other sources.
"Your credit card company has been stealing your information forever," he said.
Josh Offsie, a sophomore in the Kogod School of Business, said he would feel safer using applications if Facebook screened them for legitimacy or if they had less access to his personal information.
Felt said she hopes to convince Facebook to change the application process so that developers only see fake "placeholder" data which would preserve anonymity while allowing applications to function.
Meanwhile, users need to read the small print and be aware of the unintentional consequences of their actions, said SOC professor Amy Eisman.
"The bigger lesson is that students need to be aware of the digital footprint of their identity that they leave forever online," she said.
