When someone joins Facebook, the contacts from that user’s email account, such as, Google Gmail, are then automatically imported to Facebook who uses that information to funnel all of those email addresses into facebook’s giant database.
At the time of signup, the info is used to ask the new user if they would like to join their ‘contacts’ on Facebook, however, it’s anyones guess as to exactly what is then done with the gold mine of email addresses Facebook inherits.
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Now Google has put a halt to the practice, saying that they will no longer allow Facebook to auto-import the contacts, unless, Facebook allows Google to have the info in a two-way exchange.
This is a monumental blow to Facebook who up-until-now enjoyed the farming of countless email addresses for every one single signup.
Google released a statement saying, “We have decided to change our approach slightly to reflect the fact that users often aren’t aware that once they have imported their contacts into sites like Facebook, they are effectively trapped, we will no longer allow websites to automate the import of users’ Google Contacts (via our API) unless they allow similar export to other sites.”
Facebook is yet to respond.