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 basics
The 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.'
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This story, "Facebook Halts Controversial Sharing Feature -- for Now" was originally published by CSO.