Facebook is restricting how apps access data. What does that mean for Qualifio users?
Revelations continue to unfold in the latest Facebook scandal. It is now estimated that the personal information of up to 87 million users have been improperly shared with political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica.
Facebook is now taking steps to restrict access of app developers to user accounts. In other words, it is changing the kinds of data third-party apps (such as Tinder) can collect from the social network. The changes were announced in a Facebook post a couple of weeks ago by Mark Zuckerberg.
What are the consequences for Qualifio users? Read on to know how these changes (don’t) affect your campaigns.
Facebook login (Facebook connect)
What is Facebook Login?
Facebook Login (also called “Facebook Connect”) allows users to log into your app or website using their Facebook account. The main reason people are using it is that, like other SSO systems, it creates fewer passwords for users to remember.
Developers using Facebook Connect will now receive less information. By default, they will now receive only a user’s name, profile photo, and email address when someone signs is through Facebook. To access more detailed information, such as a user’s work history, groups or posts, they will have to get Facebook’s approval.
Facebook Connect and other features (share buttons, soft gate) will still work. Qualifio never actually collected any more data from Facebook than the absolute minimum (that is: name, profile photo, email). Therefore, this change has no impact on how our customers’ campaigns work with Facebook features. Nothing changes at all.
Facebook applications (page tabs)
What are Facebook Page Tabs?
Facebook Page Tabs are a heavily used feature of Facebook. Besides standard tabs like “About”, “Events” or “Photos” you can add custom Page tabs via the Facebook platform. These custom Page tabs load content from your webserver using an iframe. For instance, on Qualifio’s Facebook Page, this feature allows us to showcase our interactive formats:
Facebook’s Page Tab feature will now only be available to Pages with 2000 or more fans, or to Pages Tabs managed by whitelisted apps that are already installed. Which means that Facebook Pages with less than 2000 fans won’t be able to publish a new Qualifio campaign unless the publishing app was already installed on as a Page Tab previously to Facebook’s changes.
However, they will still be able to use a Facebook Soft Gate, a Facebook Share Button, or a Facebook Connect in their campaign.
Not sure whether this impacts you? Take our 10-second quiz to find out!
Your alternative
If you can’t publish Qualifio campaigns on your Facebook Page, your best option is to publish it on a dedicated minisite (or on your existing website using an embed code). This way, users will interact with you in your environment and you’ll have full control on it. Plus, by using a Facebook Soft Gate (when you propose a user to Like your Page before entering a contest), you’ll be able to grow your Facebook community and, eventually, to install a new Page Tab. This does not apply to Facebook Pages with less than 2,000 fans who already have the Page Tab installed.
