The general perception is that Facebook is interacted with by people either directly on the Facebook website or via the Facebook App installed on one or more of your mobile devices. However, Facebook is way more than that.
I am sure everyone heard about the recent issues with a private company that got hold of tens of 1000’s of peoples information. That despite the Facebook users setting their privacy to protect their information. How was that even possible and why is Facebook blaming the company?
The answer is simpler than you would imagine. You gave the company access to your information.
The question is when and how.
Facebook allows developers (developers) to write programs (apps) that can be installed on your mobile device to do whatever the app does, play games inside Facebook or “pull” content into a website from Facebook. To be able to interact with your Facebook information/posts, the app needs to get special access from Facebook to be able to do this. This special access comes in the form of a unique “token” issued by Facebook. This token is linked to a specific app and approved “permissions” that the app will ask from you to gain access to.
Normally, before an app can go “live” the developer will submit the app for approval to Facebook. This approval process is rather strict and all sorts of information need to be supplied and usually needs to include a video explaining why certain permissions are needed.
In some cases, Facebook will reach agreements with “select companies” and allow more than the usual freedom to get user information. The requirements are very strict and very few companies are able to gain that status of “partnership” with Facebook.
In the case of XMS Systems, we will only require the website to post content to the related Facebook page and possibly pull in the photo galleries. No general Facebook user information will be accessed so, therefore, our app will not be submitted for approval and never go live to the general public.
First, you will need to set up your app as described in this article.