Macworld: Facebook applications being added to profiles without users’ knowledge

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Facebook’s new features are secretly adding applications to your profile.

So say Macworld.com’s Heather Kelly and Nick Mediati.

They discovered that even if you adjust your privacy settings, certain sites you visit while logged into Facebook are -- without any notification -- showing up on your applications list. There does not appear to be any way to opt out.

I checked out my Facebook profile and discovered a trail that included CNet, Mashable, Typepad and USA Today.

As Macworld.com points out, it’s not clear if these applications are pulling any information from my profile. When I blocked the TypePad application, I got the following message: “You can prevent TypePad from getting any info about you. This will also prevent you from seeing TypePad if other people have it installed.”

Some say this has always been a feature of what was called ‘Facebook Connect,’ basically how sites integrate with Facebook. These people also say that the application does not receive any information about you, it just shows up in your list of recently used applications. They also contend that this has nothing to do with Facebook’s new features. But clearly this has led to some user confusion. We’ve asked the company for a comment and will post when we get it.

[Updated at 12:12 p.m.: Facebook says: “There was a bug that was showing applications on a user’s Application Settings page that the user hadn’t authorized. No information was shared with those applications, and the applications did not appear to anyone but the user. This bug has been fixed.”]

To see if this has happened to you, you can click on Account and then on Application Settings. You can block the application but it will be added again if you return to the site while logged into Facebook, Macworld.com says.

-- Jessica Guynn