After concerns about privacy and security, Facebook has disabled a new feature that gave application developers and third-party sites the ability to gather sensitive user information Facebook said Monday it will temporarily disable a controversial feature that allows application developers and third-party web sites to access the mobile phone numbers and addresses of certain users. The feature had sparked criticism among privacy and security advocates who cautioned the ability to gather such personal details from users opened up more doors for potential abuse, such SMS spamming, or possibly even identity theft. See also: Social media risks: The basicsThe feature also raised eyebrows because, while Facebook requests users to sign off on the feature before it is enabled, security firms feared many users would not understand that they were giving permission to app developers and third parties to access their information. Facebook, in a blog post on its developer’s site, said it will suspend the feature after receiving what it called ‘useful feedback’ and said it would be revamping the tool to ensure users in the future are ‘clearly aware of when they are granting access to this data.’ Related content news Okta launches Cybersecurity Workforce Development Initiative New philanthropic and educational grants aim to advance inclusive pathways into cybersecurity and technology careers. By Michael Hill Oct 04, 2023 3 mins IT Skills Careers Security news New critical AI vulnerabilities in TorchServe put thousands of AI models at risk The vulnerabilities can completely compromise the AI infrastructure of the world’s biggest businesses, Oligo Security said. By Shweta Sharma Oct 04, 2023 4 mins Vulnerabilities news ChatGPT “not a reliable” tool for detecting vulnerabilities in developed code NCC Group report claims machine learning models show strong promise in detecting novel zero-day attacks. By Michael Hill Oct 04, 2023 3 mins DevSecOps Generative AI Vulnerabilities news Google Chrome zero-day jumps onto CISA's known vulnerability list A serious security flaw in Google Chrome, which was discovered under active exploitation in the wild, is a new addition to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency’s Known Exploited vulnerabilities catalog. By Jon Gold Oct 03, 2023 3 mins Zero-day vulnerability Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe