Do you not understand how platform apis work? If you sign up for a third party app using Facebook and give them permission to access all your data you should expect them to capture all of your data

Are you sure everybody who clicked "ok" was aware of the distinction?

Pointing the finger at their contractors is an easy way for Facebook to shift blame. They knew what was going on. And they eagerly participated on their side of the deal.

Shift blame? Facebook created an API that would allow people to create genuinely useful apps provided that users allowed them to access their data. I can think of a thousand interesting use cases for the data Facebook provided through their api.

One bad actor screwed everyone.

I'm surprised at how few people on hackernews have ever built or worked with apis.

Facebook essentially built an open platform and now they are being punished for it because people are too stupid to understand what they are signing up for.

I may deplore that people are falling for a fraud, but I will still hold the fraudster in contempt. Not the people. So please don't call people stupid. They're up against something they are not prepared to understand.

The Facebook API needs special quarantine whenever I work with it. To protect my users.

If people aren't responsible for who has access to their data who should be?

The Facebook permissions when granting a third party app access to your data couldn't be more clear

Relying on cognitive limitations of your subjects to get agreement you wouldn't get if the subjects were fully-informed is fraudsters' domain.

And since the article is called "What Data Does Facebook Collect When I’m Not Using Facebook?" I'd like to point out that I never agreed to Facebook tracking my browsing habits. I couldn't say they were clear and forthcoming about their tracking because we never met. Are you saying they wouldn't do it without my explicit permission? Because that would be news.