Well, Slide’s Top Friends application is back up on Facebook, but it seems that another app is now feeling similar pressure from the social network. During the holiday weekend, Top Friends was reinstated on Facebook after spending a week in oblivion for allowing people to view the profile information of Top Friends users that should not have been viewable.
It appears that Slide has plugged that hole, and after a voluntary third-party audit, Top Friends was back as the third most popular application (in terms of active users) as of Monday evening.
SocialHi.com’s Social Me application as also suspended early last week “due to their violations of Facebook’s privacy policies,” according to Facebook.
Now, it seems that another popular Facebook app is feeling the heat. RockYou’s Super Wall app has been dealt a blow by Facebook. The app, which is number one in terms of installations, was not suspended from the social network, but many of its key features (including invitations and notifications, among others) were disabled.
Super Wall had around 2.4 million daily users a month ago, but that figure has plummeted to around 600,000 at the beginning of this week.
Facebook seems to be taking a more nuanced stance with Super Wall, as it strives to take measures that appease all parties involved. It is also sending a loud and clear message that its users’ privacy is to be taken seriously by developers.
This appears to be an ongoing drama that will probably continue to play out over the coming weeks as Facebook attempts to clean up its reputation.
Sources:
http://mashable.com/2008/07/05/facebook-slide-topfriends/
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/07/07/more-action-on-the-facebook-app-front
http://www.insidefacebook.com/2008/07/01/another-big-app-disappears-this-time-its-social-me/
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/07/facebook-continues-war-on-app-developers-this-week-super-wall/
http://adonomics.com/leaderboard/apps?order=num_users&filter=0
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