Facebook Plans to Proceed With Phone-Number Sharing Feature

The social-networking site has not determined when it will reintroduce the feature but is evaluating ways to “enhance user control,” including “potential additions to the permissions screen,” Marne Levine, Facebook vice president of global public policy, wrote in a Feb. 23 letter to U.S. representatives Edward Markey and Joe Barton.

Facebook also is “actively considering” whether to allow applications to request contact information from minors, Levine said in the letter.

Introduced on Jan. 14, the feature allowed application developers to request contact information from Facebook users who gave their consent. The company disabled it a few days later, saying in a Jan. 17 blog post that it had received feedback from users who wanted to “be more clearly aware of when they are granting access” to their data.

Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, and Barton, a Republican from Texas, sent a letter Feb. 2 to Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg asking about the company’s plans for the feature.

“Mobile phone numbers and personal addresses, particularly those that can identify teenagers using Facebook, require special protection,” Markey said in a statement today.

“I’m pleased that Facebook’s response indicated that it’s looking to enhance its process for highlighting for users when they are being asked for permission to share their contact information,” he said.

Andrew Noyes, a Washington-based spokesman for Facebook, said the company’s letter speaks for itself and had no additional comment.

Eric Engleman