Facebook Anonymous Login: what is it?
Third-party developers can make use of Facebook's new anonymous login feature as well as an improved Facebook Login feature to provide users with options to log in to their apps or services using Facebook accounts.
Anonymous Login has been designed to provide Facebook users with an option to try out an application or service without sharing information with it.
Apps may request information about a Facebook user when the Facebook account is used to create an account. The idea behind the new login option is to give users an option to test an app or service before they decide if they want to fully commit to it.
An anonymous trial so to speak. It works similar to the regular log in with Facebook but with the difference that personal information are not shared if the option is selected.
This means that the app developer won't receive data from the associated account while everything remains the same for Facebook in this regard (the company still knows which apps you use anonymously).
The log in anonymously option is displayed on the sign up or log in page of applications supporting the feature. If the anonymous login option is selected, no Facebook information will be shared with the app.
Users can switch to the regular Facebook Login at any time later on, for instance if they want to make use of features that require account information (such as pushing updates to Facebook).
Facebook notes that the feature is tested with a few developers currently and that additional developers will be invited to it in the coming months.
It should be clear that you stay only anonymous from the app developers but not Facebook if you use that feature. It should come in handy for Facebook users who test new applications regularly or even only occasionally, especially if they don't want to share any personal information with apps that they run using their Facebook account.
Facebook announced better controls for its regular Facebook Login authentication system. With the new Facebook Login system, users can edit the information that they provide to third-party applications and services.
To make use of that, you have to click on the "edit the info you provide" link during login. Here you can disable access to personal information that are not required.
As you can see on the screenshot above, the public profile information is a required field, while everything else including the email address, birthday and likes are not.
The new login will roll out over the course of the next few months.
Verdict
I believe that this solves an issue that app developers have faced who implemented Facebook authentication into their apps. Part of the overall userbase on Facebook does not want to share information with third-party apps. While this is especially true on first run, some may not want to share information at all with an app, and the new anonymous login feature provides them with an option to block information sharing without having to give up on the application.
Martin, I would appreciate that you do not censor this post, as it’s informative writing.
Onur, there is a misleading statement “[…] GIFs are animated images …”. No, obviously you don’t seem to have take much notice of what you were told back in March regarding; Graphics Interchange Format (GIF).
For example, https://www.ghacks.net/2023/03/31/whats-gif-explanation-and-how-to-use-it/#comment-4562919 (if you had read my replies within that thread, you might have learnt something useful). I even mentioned, “GIF intrinsically supports animated images (GIF89a)”.
You linked to said article, [Related: …] within this article, but have somehow failed to take onboard what support you were given by several more knowledgeable people.
If you used AI to help write this article, it has failed miserably.
AI is stupid, and it will not get any better if we really know how this all works. Prove me wrong.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IYl1sTIOHI
Martin, [#comment-4569908] is only meant to be in: [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/07/09/how-to-send-gifs-on-iphone-two-different-ways/]. Whereas it appears duplicated in several recent random low-quality non relevant articles.
Obviously it [#comment-4569908] was posted: 9 July 2023. Long before this thread even existed… your database is falling over. Those comments are supposed to have unique ID values. It shouldn’t be possible to duplicate the post ID, if the database had referential integrity.
Don’t tell me!
Ghacks wants the state to step in for STATE-MANDATED associations to save jobs!!!
Bring in the dictatorship!!!
And screw Rreedom of Association – too radical for Ghacks maybe
GateKeeper ?
That’s called “appointing” businesses to do the state’s dirty work!!!!!
But the article says itself that those appointed were not happy – implying they had not choice!!!!!!
@The Dark Lady,
@KeZa,
@Database failure,
@Howard Pearce,
@Howard Allan Pearce,
Note: I replaced the quoted URI scheme: https:// with “>>” and posted.
The current ghacks.net is owned by “Softonic International S.A.” (sold by Martin in October 2019), and due to the fate of M&A, ghacks.net has changed in quality.
>> ghacks.net/2023/09/02/microsoft-is-removing-wordpad-from-windows/#comment-4573130
Many Authors of bloggers and advertisers certified by Softonic have joined the site, and the site is full of articles aimed at advertising and clickbait.
>> ghacks.net/2023/08/31/in-windows-11-the-line-between-legitimate-and-adware-becomes-increasingly-blurred/#comment-4573117
As it stands, except for articles by Martin Brinkmann, Mike Turcotte, and Ashwin, they are low quality, unhelpful, and even vicious. It is better not to read those articles.
How to display only articles by a specific author:
Added line to My filters in uBlock Origin: ghacks.net##.hentry,.home-posts,.home-category-post:not(:has-text(/Martin Brinkmann|Mike Turcotte|Ashwin/))
>> ghacks.net/2023/09/01/windows-11-development-overview-of-the-august-2023-changes/#comment-4573033
By the way, if you use an RSS reader, you can track exactly where your comments are (I’m an iPad user, so I use “Feedly Classic”, but for Windows I prefer the desktop app “RSS Guard”).
RSS Guard: Feed reader which supports RSS/ATOM/JSON and many web-based feed services.
>> github.com/martinrotter/rssguard#readme
We all live in digital surveillance glass houses under scrutiny of evil people because of people like Musk. It’s only fair that he takes his turn.
“Operating systems will be required to let the user choose the browser, virtual assistant and search engine of their choice. Microsoft cannot force users to use Bing or Edge. Apple will have to open up its iOS operating system to allow third-party app stores, aka allow sideloading of apps. Google, on the other hand, will need to provide users with the ability to uninstall preloaded apps (bloatware) from Android devices. Online services will need to allow users to unsubscribe from their platform easily. Gatekeepers need to provide interoperability with third-parties that offer similar services.”
Wonderful ! Let’s hope they’ll comply with that law more than they are doing with the GDPR.