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androidfacebookprivacy

Modify the Facebook account or privacy settings via an Android App


I am developping an Android application that uses a Facebook component. It would be something to simplify the management of the Facebook privacy settings with the user only having to push 2 or 3 buttons to apply a whole set of privacy parameters to his/her account.

For example, by pushing the button "paranoid", my settings change as:

  • default privacy for new wall posts = only me
  • secure browsing ON
  • ...

And by pushing "free givaway":

  • secure browsing OFF
  • default privacy for new wall posts = everyone
  • ...

Just an example.

I'm just beginning, so I had a look at the Facebook SDK for android, implemented the few examples like the Hackbook, etc. But I'm still wondering how to manage privacy settings. I understand it would be a security concern to let an app manage that kind of thing, but why not?

Since I couldn't find a clear answer inside the bowels of internet, my questions are:

Is it doable? Or even partially?

If not, why? Will it be possible in the future?

If yes, how? What part of the API should I use?

Thanks.


Solution

  • This is not doable via the graph API because managing settings isn't available to write/update. I am almost positive this will never be available via the API. The Facebook native app may or will allow this but Facebook itself makes that app and doesn't use their own api for their app.

    If you really wanted to do this, you could break Facebook's terms of service and do this via scraping Facebook's desktop site.