Facebook Temporarily Disables Phone, Address Sharing and Aims to Increase Clarity

Following intense backlash from the press, Facebook has temporarily disabled the newly added ability for users to share their mobile phone number and address with applications and third-party websites. We praised Facebook for boldly facilitating innovation but we also advised that users be more clearly warned when permitting access to such sensitive information — through a separate prompt in the interface, for example. Now Facebook is doing the right thing, saying it will reenable the feature in a few weeks once it can make “changes to help ensure you only share this information when you intend to do so.”