Last week the popular social networking site Facebook blocked Google’s new service, Friend Connect, due to privacy concerns. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg now says that he’d like to sit down and talk with Google and work out some of these issues.
Google Friend Connect allows website owners to add social networking functions to their own websites, allowing them to interact with existing friends or new friends from a range of social networkings sites, such as Orkut, Facebook, and so on. According to Facebook, the possibility of data redistribution to third-party sites by Google is what has them concerned, and is ultimately what caused Facebook to block access.
Facebook is concerned that Google might share some of their info with a third-party application, without the user knowing. This could include anything from your phone number, to your degree program at UCLA, to your job as a real estate virtual assistant and other items that you might have included in your Facebook profile.
Zuckerberg also claims that Google had never spoken to his company prior to the launch of Friend Connect, contradicting Google Engineering Director David Glazer, who said last week in a phone interview that they had discussed it.
Zuckerberg said that they have treated Google like any other developer on top of their platform, but hope that things can be worked out.
