I just found this setting on my Yahoo account. Thankfully it was deactivated, but I honestly don’t remember setting this up in the first place. It makes me wonder how many people know this is here and if they have it deactivated as well.
The only reason I even saw it was because I decided to change my password this morning. It’s something everyone should do from time to time. Apparently, if you’re a Yahoo account holder, you should check your Account Sign-in Settings as well.
And what the heck is Yahoo! Sushi?
And the vaguely titled Yahoo! Partner’s Application?
Hmmmm…
Sounds like some kind of partnership between yahoo and facebook to cope with Google’s increased sphere of influence.
it’s another layer of security to the long-existant application on facebook to enter the username and password of an email account to retrieve contacts.
It’s OpenID.
Duh.
I may be wrong, but my guess is that its a security system.
Facebook asks you to enter your email address to receive contact info on regards to who else you know that is using facebook, my assumption is that for facebook to read your yahoo contact info, you have to have it permitted or “activated” to receive your contacts information.
Probably just allowing facebook to retrieve your friends email address when requested by yourself through the facebook website.
feel free to correct me.
I am just guessing but…..
I am pretty sure it is for when you are inviting people to an event on facef*ck and you want to invite people that are not on facef*ck to the event. Therefore you would want to add people from your yahoo,hotmail,gmail…..etc address books.
seems like a easy way for both parties to cover their proverbial asses.
If you want to retrieve your Gmail or Yahoo contacts from another application (for instance, “see if any of your Yahoo friends use Facebook”) many websites go the awful route of asking for your email username and password. This is bad because it teaches you that it’s OK to give out all your passwords anywhere. Facebook currently does this on their ‘Find Friends’ page: http://www.facebook.com/findfriends.php
A better way that some sites do it is that you click a link and briefly visit the third-party site (like Yahoo Mail) which then says “is it OK for me to share your contacts with X website”? This is much more secure as it gives you total control, without ever giving away your passwords, and once the contacts list has been retrieved, the permission is revoked. Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, Dopplr and Flickr should all be praised for embracing this way of doing things.
From the screen you posted, it looks like Yahoo are preparing for Facebook to do it this better way instead of asking for your email username and password. Normally they wouldn’t need this option to be visible in your settings page, but maybe because Facebook is such a big player in terms of user numbers they have gone that extra step of allowing you to leave it turned on instead of revoking it immediately.
It’s really nothing to be worried about. In fact, a big thumbs up to Yahoo and Facebook!
In Facebook, did you ever do the Friend Finder using your yahoo email account to find your friends? That’s how that got there.
Basically, it pulls your list of emails from the address book, compares it to its own lists, and finds your friends that way. Facebook also supports gmail and hotmail and other such services for this sort of thing.
How else do u think facebook finds ur friends there when u first join facebook.com?
that is how…
This is surprising why? Yahoo has been pushing these shady relationships and crapperware for years. Ever get prompted to install Sun’s Java? Careful, if you dont pay attention Yahoo toolbar sneaks into the installation.
Dozens of other programs come with (by option or force) Yahoo toolbar or messenger program. Just more adserving junk.
Dude thats normal, as facebook has a linkup to check if your contacts from your different mail accounts are already on facebook, you give the permission. Dont worry so much.
It’s probably a setting to allow Facebook can log into your account (with your permission), read your address book and search its DB for matching email addresses so you can add them as a “friend” inside FB. Alternatively it spams those people who don’t yet have Facebook to “join us!”
It’s quite outrageous that a site like Facebook asks people “Type in your Yahoo/Hotmail/GMail-password right here!” and people do so, without thinking. There are already several phishing sites that say they’ll give you something afer you login with your MSN account and password. What they then do is use your account to send spam (apparently it’s spim) to your contacts. Well done to those who fall for that trick, and well done to Facebook for making it look acceptable that people give their account details to a 3rd party.
Thanks for all of your comments. I agree with most of you who say this is part of how you find friends on Facebook. And I know that it’s also part of how you do that on other social sites. the difference is, Facebook is the only one that becomes an option on Yahoo accounts.
And to answer the comment by Lucas … It’s not OpenID (duh). 1) OpenID is used to verify your login information. It would have no need to check your contacts or address book. 2) Facebook does not use OpenID as an option for logging in. 3) Even if 1 & 2 were not true, the fact is I use OpenID on several sites, none of which are listed as options in my Yahoo account settings.
The issue here is that there is a temporary choice made on some sites to access your email contact list, but somehow a connection could be left permanently open between Facebook and Yahoo.
Oh and one last thing. Sorry for my site crashing and burning for a few hours. It’s fixed now.
Cheers,
Stephen
Y! Sushi and the Partner Applications you are so worried about are merely applications to keep you logged in on the Y! Network. With a new website and new mobile applications being tested, enabling these account settings “keeps you persistently logged in” without interruption or data loss. Facebook is added when either side is trying to contact the other. I cant believe this made Digg. Sad.
I don’t like this at all. I was going to join Facebook for the first time, but I “declined” the Facebook/Yahoo permission thing when I first signed up for Facebook and it directed me to another page. So now, I can’t log into Facebook at all unless I give permission for this??? I do NOT want Facebook to have access to my address book. What the hell? This is why I’m sticking with MySpace. Is there any way to sign up for Facebook without having to give this permission???
I don’t like it either. You can decline it, but it keeps pestering you for your email password.
The other thing that bugs me about facebook is the constant redirecting to third party web sites. They don’t even warn you before opening the 3rd party page.