As Facebook continues to grow and become a larger part of everyone’s lives, security and privacy concerns have become more important than ever. So a company called Secure.Me has stepped in with a tool to warn you about privacy issues, called App Advisor.
Facebook allows 3rd party “apps” to use your data for various things. Like collecting your friends’ birthdays to remind you of them, or sharing your game updates with everyone. But it’s not always clear what personal information is collected or shared. Secure.Me’s new App Advisor tool tells you, in plain English.
It comes out on Wednesday and installs as a browser plugin. It supports Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. (If you’re still using IE I highly recommend installing Chrome).
How does Secure.Met App Advisor work?
It starts working when you load Facebook on your PC (so it won’t work on your iPhone). It then notices what Facebook Apps you’ve added to your account. This part is great, because most people don’t know what Facebook Apps they’ve added, or won’t remember what they added 2 years ago.
Then it looks up each app in their database, and tells you what they know about the app.
I think it’s brilliant. It gives you independent advice about Facebook apps, when you need it, and without having to really do anything.
When it launches on Wednesday I’ll update this post with more information.