Already under fire for taking liberties with users' privacy, Facebook was outed on Thursday as a distributor of unwanted applications, some of which install adware or are added to user profiles without permission.
As
noted earlier by
PC World, the social networking site silently adds apps to profiles whenever a user is logged in and browses to certain sites. Facebook displays no dialogue box or notification window asking permission, and there is no easy way to opt out of the process.
A
second report by security researcher Gadi Evron found that Facebook is being used as a distribution platform for adware such as the FLV Direct media player. The software comes bundled with adware from something called Zugo Search,
according to researchers from anti-virus provider Sunbelt Software.
In a game of whack-a-mole, Facebook appears to be killing the links to the FLVDirect.exe download within hours of them being posted, but as soon as one goes down another seems to go up. To entice users to install the crapware, the come-ons include images of well-endowed cleavage in a pink bikini.
Since its beginning, Facebook's philosophy with user privacy has been that it's better to beg for forgiveness than to ask for permission, and that's what seems to be going on here. Rather than seeking consent before installing apps from partners such as
TechCrunch, CNET and
The Washington Post, Facebook just adds them to user profiles. It's hard for users to make informed privacy decisions when they aren't even aware it's happening.
