An SDK is a Software Development Kit. A set of tools used to build an application. Turns out that Facebook has an SDK for making mobile phone apps and it has a wee bit of a security issue - from BoingBoing:
Mobile apps built with Facebook's SDK secretly shovel mountains of personal information into the Zuckermouth
If you need to build an app quickly and easily, you might decide to use Facebook's SDK, which has lots of bells and whistles, including easy integration of Facebook ads in your app's UI.
The quid pro quo is that your app will send all your users' sensitive data to Facebook, and Facebook stores that data forever and uses it in every conceivable way.
I have not been active on Facebook in about a year and am seriously thinking of disconnecting from it entirely. It is a cute application for local events and people but there is too much dark shit going on under the surface for me to feel secure. A bit more:
Notably, none of these apps' privacy disclosures mention Facebook. When called by the Wall Street Journal, the companies behind the apps had a variety of responses, from denial to lying to shock and horror. Facebook -- predictably -- blamed the app vendors for not understanding that the apps they built would spy on their users on Facebook's behalf. Apple and Google -- who distribute these apps -- threw up their hands and blamed everyone except themselves (of course).
Of course they are going to point the finger somewhere else. I mean nobody actually READS the fine print do they?
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