...with Facebook. Here's an exact transcript of my thoughts when I decided to try a new and exciting iPhone app this morning.
"Bah, it wants me to login with my Facebook account. What harm could it possibly do? After all, I don't keep any personal data on Facebook and I monitor my privacy closely. The worst that will happen is that it will post something to my wall and I will delete it. I hate that lazy developers won't even bother to use oAuth anymore, and I don't want to encourage this behavior, but I'll just try it out. Okay, click the next button. Next again. Next... gah! It's sending join-my-network invitations to all my friends! Uninstall! Uninstall!"
Yes, it went through my Facebook contacts, picked the people with whom I most often interact, and decided to invite those people to install their app and join my network.
So those people, through no fault of their own, have now been spammed because of my Facebook behavior.
I actually managed to uninstall the app before it had contacted more than three of my friends. And I'm pretty sure those three people are going to be reasonable about it.
But this is EXACTLY WHY Facebook is bad for the internet. Not only has it fostered laziness on the part of developers by encouraging them to simply outsource all their account-processing work to Facebook, but it has also created an entire culture of services and apps that are designed to do nothing more than advertise themselves to my friends.
You know what, developers? If I like your product, I'll tell my own damn friends about it my own damn self.
You know what, Facebook? I don't even know what to say to you. You're not the proximate cause of my bitterness, but there's no doubt in my mind that you had a hand in this little incident. Don't think I'll forget or forgive.
