My Big Brother Zucker

[captainsblog]

I had to call a client just now.  Quickest access to her phone number is through contacts on my phone.  It's listed in there under her business name, but with her cell number and email address also included.

Her picture's there on the contact page.

I didn't take it. I didn't receive it. I didn't ask Apple, or Outlook, or any app relevant to my contacts to put it there.

Guess who did it?



This wasn't when I downloaded that app, ages ago and on iOS 5. I still haven't downloaded the "update" to the app that's been sitting with a little red one on top of it for ages. But after my PC crash-and-almost-burn of February, Apple pushed through yet another update to iOS 6, and I really needed it, because a bug in the original release was apparently running some contact update in infinite-loop mode and draining batteries (well, mine, at least) in record time. So as soon as I got this laptop back and installed the update, I got this screen:







I immediately turned off syncing with contacts and calendar.  I also saw this little message:

Photos and user names are automatically updated for Facebook friends. Choose “Update All Contacts” to temporarily provide Facebook with email addresses and phone numbers from your contacts to update photos and user names for all matching contacts.

No, I did not click that. Yet somehow, that first okey-dokey fed every contact's phone and/or email address into the bowels of the Fortress of Zuckertude and mind-melded them with them on his servers so that my iPhone contacts now display their Facebook profile pictures.

And?  "A Word of Caution." Which doesn't come from Facebook or the app it stuck me with, but from the article I've been quoting and screenshotting from:

While in theory, the idea of having updated contact information sounds great, it can create a number of contacts that might be worthy of that position in your iPhone. Let’s face it, we all have the ‘friend’ on Facebook who we wouldn’t call in; well ever. At any point, you can turn off the sync, but switching the preference to Off. The trouble here is that your Contacts are forever tainted by the merging of your Facebook friends and the Contacts app on your iPhone. Depending on your setup, these could then be syncing to iCloud, your iPad and your Macs.

Now who was it was saying that Macs are so much better for you?

In addition to the client in question, I've checked through contacts to see who else has shown up. Many Facebook friends now have their pictures in there, but more troubling is that a lot of non-Facebook friends do, also. Likely without knowing. And so far, the outer limits have been a picture of some kitties and a really weird headshot of a guy in a funny hat. But be aware: if you put anything controversial or potentially offensive as your FB profile picture, it is potentially going to every business, school or family contact whether you wanted it to or not.

Comments

[thediva-laments.livejournal.com]

And this? Is why I'm SO glad I'm not on facebook.

[greenquotebook.livejournal.com]

I have an iMac and an iPhone and use FB on both and never had this problem. Strange...

[liddle-oldman.livejournal.com]

Outsmarted by a smartphone? (Or outmaneuvered, I guess.) :)

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid I can't answer that, Leslie.

[bill_sheehan.livejournal.com]

Captain, how do you think Facebook makes money? It's not selling things to you, it's selling you! And all your friends.

Resistance is futile. Remember, in the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is merely paranoid.

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm perfectly familiar with the temptations of Zuckifer. The surprising thing for me was that Apple let him get away with it. Letting a major competitor (actually or potentially) get so intertwined into the basic functions of the iPhone and leave Face traces all over the device- without asking, and without hope of undoing? That sounds way beyond what the anals of the App Store would normally allow.