Google have thrown a spanner in the works of Facebook’s growth plans by barring the social network from accessing its contacts data on its email service Gmail.
The change has come about as a result of Google’s decision to re-write their terms and conditions. Under their new terms, Google say that anyone who wants to access their API to connect with contacts, must return the favour by sharing their data contacts with Google. However Facebook has a very strict policy on its contact data which doesn’t allow them to share information with any other parties.
When Facebook members first sign up to the social networking site, Facebook offers them the opportunity to search for friends via the contacts in their Gmail, Yahoo or Microsoft Live accounts, however as a result of the change in Google’s policy, Facebook will no longer be able to offer this service for Gmail users.
Facebook doesn’t allow it’s users to export any contact information from its site so under Google’s new rules, the social networking site is now excluded from using Gmail to track down contacts. Facebook have recently launched a data download programme, however this only provides contact names, and no actual contact information.
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