We have 7,024 registered users!

This web app is a central place to coordinate a list of mass-add contacts for various Facebook games! You can't see the list of addresses without registering and logging in. These lists, of course, will never be sold. This site is just as safe as adding your Email address to large lists of public messages on Facebook groups.


Ian's Facebook Mass-Add Site is shutting down

This is a hard letter to write to my community of > 7000 users.

This journey began in November of 2008 and grew to thousands of like-minded Facebook gamers around the world. In the 3.5 years that I have run the site, I've gotten to know a handful of you and was even told that this site contributed two two gamers meeting up on Facebook and ultimately getting MARRIED. I was even in discussions about selling the site at one point for some profit. Who knew??

I was even in the middle of an entire site overhaul and redesign that would have taken this to a whole new level of finding games and like-minded gamers. All of that work will be thrown away now.

Today I learned a very disturbing change in Facebook's privacy settings, which has prompted me to schedule some time this weekend to delete every shred of data on Facebook and to delete my account. After a moment to think about it, I decided that out of principle I would also close up the Mass-Add web site as well.

The change is laid out in their newest terms of use document. From the sounds of it, they only opened it up for a week for comments and feedback, then locked the document from further feedback and went ahead with the changes despite the number of users who posted very negative feedback.

The sneaky jerks even threw this in their terms at some point:

If more than 7,000 users comment on a proposed change, we will also give you the opportunity to participate in a vote in which you will be provided alternatives. The vote shall be binding on us if more than 30% of all active registered users as of the date of the notice vote.

Of course, without alerting the user base ahead of time, and only keeping the comments open for ONE WEEK, they didn't get 7,000 comments. They got 526. So guess what, it went through.

The main culprit for me is as follows, and I have bolded the parts that should concern you as a Facebook user as well:

2. Sharing Your Content and Information

You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook, and you can control how it is shared through your privacy and application settings. In addition:
1. For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (IP content), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy andapplication settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP License). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.
2. When you delete IP content, it is deleted in a manner similar to emptying the recycle bin on a computer. However, you understand that removed content may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time (but will not be available to others).
3. When you or others who can see your content and information use an application, your content and information is shared with the application. We require applications to respect your privacy, and your agreement with that application will control how the application can use, store, and transfer that content and information. (To learn more about Platform, read our Data Use Policyand Platform Page.)

Let's address Paragraph 2.3 first. They have effectively allowed every application your FRIENDS use have access to any information that YOU have shared with that friend. YOU NO LONGER HAVE TO GIVE EXPLICIT PERMISSION TO APPS, simply the act of your friends using those apps, those apps can gather your personal information.

And I've read their Data Use Policy *and* the Platform Page. Apps can have access to whatever data they want, they're just not *supposed* to keep copies. but there's no way for Facebook to enforce that other than to shut off their data access.

Next, let's look at the conflicting messages in 2.1 and 2.2. In 2.1 they tell you that you can delete any of your personal data you like, unless you've shared it with anyone and they haven't deleted their copy, too. Which means I have to tell all of my FB friends to please go through every photo, post, note, etc. and un-tag me from everything?? Yeah, like that's going to happen. In 2.2 they reverse what they've said, or make it so confusing to understand that they'll hang onto your data for a 'reasonable' period of time before deleting it. So, when I delete my photos, they hang around while you flush them out of your entire network? Okay, great. Oh, wait, unless my friends have tagged me or somehow use my content, then for some inexplicable reason they get to keep a copy of content I'm asking to be deleted??

15. Termination

If you violate the letter or spirit of this Statement, or otherwise create risk or possible legal exposure for us, we can stop providing all or part of Facebook to you. We will notify you by email or at the next time you attempt to access your account. You may also delete your account or disable your application at any time. In all such cases, this Statement shall terminate, but the following provisions will still apply: 2.2, 2.4, 3-5, 8.2, 9.1-9.3, 9.9, 9.10, 9.13, 9.15, 9.18, 10.3, 11.2, 11.5, 11.6, 11.9, 11.12, 11.13, and 15-19.

Let's look at that list and see what lingers around Facebook even if you delete your account:

  • 2.2: Your data may linger for a while while they try to erase it in a 'reasonable' amount of time
  • 2.4: If you publish something using the 'Public' setting, that data will never be deleted
  • 3.5: You're not allowed to solicit login information from other users or access someone else's account
  • 8.2: If you put 'Share' or 'Like' buttons on your own personal web site, Facebook can continue to share those links and content
  • 9.1 - 9.3, 9.9, 9.10, 9.13, 9.15, 9.18, applicable to developers of Facebook applications/games; if you keep running your app/game on Facebook, you're still bound to some of their terms and guidelines
  • 10.3: Facebook 'may not always identify' advertisements as paid services. Way to be sneaky, Facebook.
  • 11.2, 11.5, 11.6, 11.9, 11.12, 11.13 are applicable to advertisers on Facebook and you are still bound to some of their terms.
  • 15 through 19: 15 is their notice about Termination, 16 is about their Dispute policy, 17 is Special Provisions to users outside of the Unite States of America, 18 is a list of definitions (eg, 'data' or 'user data' is defined as any data, including a user's content or information that you or third parties can retrieve from Facebook or provide to Facebook), 19 is a list of miscellaneous legal stuff like 'if anything in this agreement is unenforceable, the remainder of the agreement shall still apply', that sort of thing.