Facebook listing phone numbers from your contacts in phone?

[DJ_Critterus]

My questionis jow do I delte these numbers from showing if they were brought in from contacts on my phone? I have a few hundred contacts and only see a handful in the list I'm showing on FB. Are these numbers that my friends have added andpublished? When i follow the directions below and click the delete button next to the name, it asks if I want to delete the contact. Does this mean I didn't publish the number? Either way, this sickens me.

Here's the link: Facebook Users Raise Alarm Over Social Network's Posting of Confidential Phone Numbers - FoxNews.com

All the phone numbers in your phone are now on Facebook, warns an alarmed statement making the rounds on the social network, and the numbers are there whether you've allowed the site access to them or not.

That's not exactly true, Facebook argues, noting that the feature has existed for over a year. But users, just now realizing the sensitive information they're sharing, are buzzing up a storm. And for some people, it's one sting too many from a company they're growing reluctant to trust with their data.

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"That might be the last straw," wrote one worried Facebook user.

"All my friend's personal phone numbers are on there! Not happy," another complained.

Facebook adamantly denied that the confidential phone numbers of friends and family are freely accessible online, as many have worried. The company posted a statement to its site at the end of the day to address user concerns.

"Rumors claiming that your phone contacts are visible to everyone on Facebook are false," reads a response the company has posted to its website. "Our Contacts list, formerly called Phonebook, has existed for a long time. The phone numbers listed there were either added by your friends themselves and made visible to you, or you have previously synced your phone contacts with Facebook."

"Just like on your phone, only you can see these numbers."

To see the phonebook that's causing all the fuss, click on Account in Facebook's top right corner, then click on Edit Friends, and click Contacts at the left side. Indeed, Facebook does store a list of phone numbers, both contacts you have imported from your phone as well as information your Facebook friends have themselves added.

And that may even be a handy tool, pointed out Don Debolt, director of threat research for Internet security firm Total Defense.

"In some ways, Facebook is attempting to be very helpful," Debolt told FoxNews.com. The site syncs information from your phone to help you find new friends and connect with them, one of a variety of handy features in the social networking toolbag.

"But how exactly they are using this information isn't exactly clear," Debolt noted. "We don't know how our data is being used, we don't know how our data is being monetized."

The real concern for many is the world of underage children on Facebook -- as many as 7.5 million kids under the age of 13, despite the company's official prohibition on those under 16, and 5 million under the age of 10, according to one recent survey.

"I think this is a wake-up call for sure for parents to get involved," Debolt told FoxNews.com. "Teenagers that have Facebook accounts and mobile phones? Their numbers are being shared openly as well."

Children using social networks are far more willing to accept friend requests from people they don't know, even random strangers, warned Noah Kindler, founder of Social Shield, an online monitoring service that helps parents keep track of their children's online activity.

"They don't realize that the same rules that work offline -- don’t talk to strangers -- apply online as well," Kindler told FoxNews.com. Parents simply peering over a child's shoulder every few minutes isn't good enough, he advised. Yet that's all too many parents do.

A new survey conducted by NPD Data and Comscore for Social Shield found most parents admitting that they don't have the tools, knowledge or time to properly monitor their children on social networks -- and many admit that they take no precautions at all.

And those phones busily syncing phone numbers to every member of the social group? About 30 percent of kids have smartphones, the survey found.

"By 8 or 9 years old, 30 to 40 percent of kids have a cellphone," Kindler said.

Many parents use the controls built in to their computers to monitor their children's activity. That's not good enough either, advised Torben Mottes, director of product management with Social Shield.

"Parental controls don't give them what they need to monitor social networks other than to know that their kids are on it," he told FoxNews.com

Ultimately, it's up to us to know where our information is going, Debolt warned.

"This is an example of the diligence we have to take upon ourselves as we're using new technologies to understand how our data is being used," he said.

Read more: Facebook Users Raise Alarm Over Social Network's Posting of Confidential Phone Numbers - FoxNews.com

[GRN ENVY]

Go to the top right of the screen, click on ACCOUNT, click on EDIT FRIENDS, left side of screen and click CONTACTS. you will see all phone numbers from your cell phone (FB friends or not) are published that you have stored in your phone. TO REMOVE, go to the right column, click on "this page."

[beadist]

They've been there a long time but I guess word is just getting around.

[kylebuck]

No shit... im going though and seening all the girls that have deleted me.


ahhh memories

[erickpl]

Those are the phone numbers of the people you've friended on Facebook that have made their phone numbers visible. I have about 500 numbers in my address book, not to mention the entire directory for the agency for which I work. I don't see it on Facebook at all, but then again, I didn't enable the exchange between my phone and the FB app.

[boracayjohnny]

Just for shiggles....my new # is 800-555-1212. Call me, I'll answer right away.

[DJ_Critterus]

Well, I don't have my number listed in FB at all and I set i\the account setting not to display personal info. I also set FB not to import contacts from my phone's address/contact book, so I'm guessing the handful of number I see are one that my friends authorized to be shared. Is this a correct view of the situation?

[erickpl]

Originally Posted by DJ_Critterus

Well, I don't have my number listed in FB at all and I set i\the account setting not to display personal info. I also set FB not to import contacts from my phone's address/contact book, so I'm guessing the handful of number I see are one that my friends authorized to be shared. Is this a correct view of the situation?

That would be correct. I'm set up the same way.

[oyealiz]

More crap about Facebook. The numbers showing are ones people who are on your friends list have in their profiles.

DJ...your phone number (as you know) is in my phone but does not show up on the contact phone numbers on my Facebook.

[DJ_Critterus]

Originally Posted by oyealiz

More crap about Facebook. The numbers showing are ones people who are on your friends list have in their profiles.

DJ...your phone number (as you know) is in my phone but does not show up on the contact phone numbers on my Facebook.

Thanks Liz. i don't want tons of slims calling me at all hours of the night. Chapsaltuck would grab a knife and turn me into a slim while I sleep

[Sea Six]

Originally Posted by DJ_Critterus

Thanks Liz. i don't want tons of slims calling me at all hours of the night. Chapsaltuck would grab a knife and turn me into a slim while I sleep

: willy:


Get it?

[DJ_Critterus]

Originally Posted by Sea Six

: willy:


Get it?

I got it. Jsut wanted to maake the castration joke sincce the opportunity for those aa far aand few between. Yeah, I know... not my best effort

[boracayjohnny]

Originally Posted by DJ_Critterus

Thanks Liz. i don't want tons of slims calling me at all hours of the night. Chapsaltuck would grab a knife and turn me into a slim while I sleep

That reminds me of the Korean wife who came home to find her husband in bed with another woman. She patiently boiled some water and then threw it on them. He was in the hospital with some incredible burns. That was at Clark P-I back in the day and he was med-evac'd from Korea. I suppose if ya can't do the time, you shouldn't do the crime....

[PLRX]

only a knucklehead would post their personal cellular number for the whole world to see and now for the whole world to have stored in their cells, outlook, g-mail and else.

[nhlgopens]

It's only been like this for a year or so...

[DJ_Critterus]

Originally Posted by nhlgopens

It's only been like this for a year or so...

Some of us never knew and never knew whee to check since we thought this was a non-issue. Fortunately I'm not in any danger here since I hate giving out any kind of email addy even if it is the one I use for junk mail and the inevitable spam emails.

[HeatherO]

your phone contacts are only posted on facebook, if they themselves have listed their number in their info...