Facebook Beefs Up Privacy for App Logins--and Lets You Go Anonymous

I’m at Facebook’s f8 developer conference in San Francisco, where the keynote is still underway–but there’s already been some significant news.

Mark Zuckerberg opened the day by saying that this conference would be all about how Facebook is building a stable mobile platform for developers–a “cross-platform platform” that competes with Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows Phone. And which isn’t too buggy–Zuckerberg says that Facebook has dumped its old mantra of “Move Fast and Break Things” in favor of moving fast, but worrying about reliability.

The first specific tidbits he shared all had to do with using Facebook to sign into other apps:

• When you sign into a new app for the first time, you’ll get a list of specific permissions the app would like to have, such as being able to post to your wall–and you’ll be able to turn them on and off selectively, tailoring your level of privacy to your liking.
• Facebook will stop sharing information involving a user’s friends with apps–so, for instance, an app such as Rdio will never know or display what you’re listening to unless you’ve given explicit permission.
• You’ll be able to use Facebook to sign into an app anonymously–so your Facebook credentials get used but Facebook doesn’t tell the app who you are.

Interesting stuff. More to come as the conference proceeds.

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