>The fact that Facebook botched it up is not less problematic than Facebook selling data because the outcome for users is more or less the same.

Users signed in to services they already had accounts with, and therefore trusted, knowing they were enabling features they wanted to use with their data. These services were hand selected big name companies. This is a far cry from selling data to the highest bidder for profit.

>It was unclear to users what they consented to when they signed in.

I highly doubt anyone would consent to allowing third party companies to read their private messages if that was actually made clear to them.

I think this might be part of the problem. The idea of handing over your private messages to some random company is so absurd that the average person probably assumes that it couldn’t possibly be what they’re asking for. You’ll have to make the permission prompt really explicit to overcome that.

Plenty of people installed Facebook apps that required permission to read all text messages

Yes, but that doesn't mean that they consent to Facebook using that data. Whatsapp for example asks "read SMS" permission to verify your phone number. It also requires access to your contact list or else everyone's name will be shown as a phone number.

The average user seems to assume that the information is used to provide the service and nothing more. The last person I asked if they were worried about how much information FB has about them replied something among the lines of "Yes, but it's only things that I deliberately chose to share." (paraphrased)

Sounds like we need another Facebook apology tour.

This strongly reminds me of that South Park episode which had the BP Oil CEO apologizing for fucking up. Over and over again.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WTsDqIcpHUc

"We're sorry you misunderstood how we operate." - Zuckerberg