Facebook pre-approves other websites to access your personal info

If you care who uses your Facebook data, you should get ready to change your privacy settings. Facebook Connect, which delivers your personal data to other sites that you choose, is about to start delivering it to sites that Facebook has pre-approved.

Which sites are on the pre-approved list to get your data?

We don't know yet, because Facebook hasn't actually released a list. All we can tell from the available information is that you might show up at a third-party website and be surprised that it already has access to information like your name, birthday, or friends list.

Here's the exact language Facebook has used to explain the new policy:

Pre-Approved Third-Party Websites and Applications. In order to provide you with useful social experiences off of Facebook, we occasionally need to provide General Information about you to pre-approved third party websites and applications that use Platform at the time you visit them (if you are still logged in to Facebook). Similarly, when one of your friends visits a pre-approved website or application, it will receive General Information about you so you and your friend can be connected on that website as well (if you also have an account with that website). In these cases we require these websites and applications to go through an approval process, and to enter into separate agreements designed to protect your privacy.

Let Facebook know what you think!