New Facebook Timeline Apps bring New Privacy Questions
Late last year Facebook introduced Open Graph, Timeline, Social apps at their f8 Developer Conference but it wasn’t immediately available for everyone. Though Timeline rolled out worldwide back in December, until now, not everyone has experienced using the “New Facebook.” And though not everyone likes change, Facebook recently added a new “Listen with” button so people can listen in on what their friends are listening to. But Facebook is not about done with the reconstruction as they just announced that the social apps they announced last year are now available.
Yesterday, Facebook officially launched Timeline Apps which can be simply described as an easier way of letting everyone know what you’re up to. So it’s not just about “liking” something anymore, with these apps, it can be more specific as a variety of verbs replace the world “like.”
Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg showed “Cooked” and “Ran” as possible examples of Open Graph Actions during his speech. “Eating, traveling, shopping, running, or taking pictures” were also mentioned as actions the apps can share on your Timeline.
There are over 60 apps categorized into Music, News, Giving, Travel, Food, Shopping and Fashion, Fitness, Entertainment and Other. here are just some of the apps available: Soundcloud, Rdio, Yahoo! News, Washington Post Social Reader, Livingsocial, Fab etc. To see the full list of available apps, click here and to learn more about Timeline Apps, click here.
“Soon, there will be apps for all types of interests, as more apps will launch over time” director of platform products Carl Sjogreen said at the launch. ”Whether you love snowboarding, gardening, hiking, or knitting, or something else, there will be an app for you.”
Facebook security for Timeline Apps
As for security issues, Sjogreen stated that each app will come with their own permission so users have the option of not sharing anything with a given app and just use it as a private application that only the user will know of. Aside from this, users can group related apps together so that their Timeline would not look like someone decided to scatter apps on it.
But of course, if you’re not using Timeline, then Timeline Apps won’t be available for you. But don’t fret, Timeline is said to be rolling out as a mandatory update later this week, so to those people who postponed upgrading to the Timeline profile, better brace yourselves for the major changes that are about to happen.
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