Google Developers Blog: How Google Friend Connect Works

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How Google Friend Connect Works

Saturday, May 17, 2008

By Peter Chane, Sami Shalabi, Mussie ShoreconversationsThe only user information that we pass from a social networking site to third-party applications is the user's public photo, and even that is under user control.

Google Friend Connect puts users in control over whether they're connected to their data on Facebook.

Google Friend Connect only reads a small amount of user data from Facebook, and does so using Facebook's public APIs. We read the Facebook numeric id, friendly name, and public photo URLs of the user and their friends. We read no other information.

The only user information that we pass from Facebook to third-party applications is the URL of the user's public photo.

Google Friend Connect does not permanently store any user data retrieved from Facebook.

1) Google Friend Connect puts users in control over whether they're connected to their data on Facebook.Facebook developer api documentationfacebook.comnotFrom the Friend Connect settings dialog:And from within Facebook's own Applications Privacy screen:2) Google Friend Connect only reads a small amount of user data from Facebook, and does so using Facebook's public APIs. We read the Facebook numeric id, friendly name, and public photo URLs of the user and their friends. We read no other information.Example data retrieved from Facebook (NOT passed to third-party apps):500013789 31415926535 Peter Chane http://profile.ak.facebook.com/profile5/1038/101/s500013789_4207.jpg 694454023 Mussie Shore http://profile.ak.facebook.com/profile6/1933/85/s694454023_4271.jpg 709611 Sami Shalabi http://profile.ak.facebook.com/profile5/657/87/n709611_9673.jpg

A Facebook user ID (e.g. 500013789) that is used when Google Friend Connect communicates with Facebook. The unique ID is a number assigned by Facebook -- it is NOT the user's username or their phone number. The unique ID contains no personal information.

A session-key (e.g. 31415926535) which is a unique number provided by Facebook, that Facebook uses to track and control what data is exposed to Google Friend Connect for the logged-in user.

The user's friendly name as they entered it in Facebook (e.g. "Peter Chane"). This is typically a first and last name.

A URL to the user's public Facebook picture (e.g. http://profile.ak.facebook.com/profile5/1038/101/s500013789_4207.jpg). If the user set their picture to be private on Facebook then Google Friend Connect does not receive the picture. Again the picture used by Google Friend Connect is public and is easily viewed by anyone on the web.

A list of Facebook user IDs for each of the user's friends on Facebook. For each friend, Google Friend Connect retrieves the friend's Facebook picture-URL and name.

3) The only user information that we pass from Facebook to third-party applications is the URL of the user's public photo.www.ingridmichaelson.com

Your Google Friend Connect ID. This is a number. It is not a name, and it is not your ID from Facebook or any other social network.

Your nickname that you entered in Friend Connect. (NOT your friendly name from Facebook or any other social network.)

The URL to your public photo from Facebook or another social network. And only if you've chosen to make that photo public on the social network. (Note that Facebook includes the user's Facebook ID in the URL of their profile photo. We intend to obfuscate this URL in a future release of Friend Connect.)

The Google Friend Connect IDs (and Friend Connect nicknames, and photo URLs from linked social networks) of any of your friends who are also members of this site. (Not all of your social network friends. Not their social network IDs.)

4) Google Friend Connect does not permanently store any user data retrieved from Facebook.

Google

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