When a user logs into your platform through the “Facebook login”, you are able to access a subset of this person’s data stored in his Facebook profile. Facebook Permissions is the way you request the user to grant you the ability to access his data and more specifically which data. When logging in for the first time, the user will be prompted with a dialog like the one below, clearly stating the data fields he is agreeing for you to access.
How many Facebook Permissions can I ask for?
Facebook allows access to multiple data fields from a user’s profile, when the appropriate permission is granted. In order to stay compliant with “Facebook’s Terms of Service” and not overwhelm your users, we recommend against asking for Permissions that are not essential to your platform and are not clearly contributing in enhancing your user’s experience.
The more permissions you request, the less likely people will use Facebook to log onto your site or it might result in a dramatic drop of logins and usage of your platform, but ask for too few and you will lose tremendous value and opportunity to capture data essential in understanding and uncovering the needs and preferences of your Customers. Balance is key.
Some basic information is by default accessible through Facebook Login, like name, gender, age range and profile picture, providing significant demographics about your audience. We recommend asking for additional permissions to get the maximum value without trading-off user retention.
For some permissions, your app will have to be reviewed by Facebook first, but we got your back on this one too. You will find instructions on how to submit your Facebook App for review here.
Which permissions to consider and for what?
Your app may use this permission without review from Facebook.
Collecting the email address will enable you to directly communicate with your customers. Imagine creating mailing lists for targeted promotions by segmenting your audience based on location, gender or other preferences. The email address can also be a useful tool in identifying users across platforms and building a unified and holistic customer profile.
Likes
If your app requests this permission Facebook will have to review how your app uses it.
A user’s likes reveal interests, brand affinities, tastes, favorite activities or hobbies. Tailor your marketing campaigns with highly-targeted material and content, make targeted offers and convince your customers to stay. Get a 360 view of your Customer and understand what makes them tick and with which brands and products they are already engaging.
Work & Education History
If your app requests these permissions Facebook will have to review how your app uses it.
By knowing more about your Customer’s academic and professional experience and past and current employers you unveil a big part of your Customer’s real-life identity. You can then approach them with content and propositions relevant to their industry, area of expertise, job title and professional interests and create lists of high-quality leads.
Location
If your app requests this permission Facebook will have to review how your app uses it.
Capture detailed and reliable geo data and segment your audience based on their location in combination with their interests or age. Initiate a context-driven approach and suggestions based on where your Customers are.
Facebook extended permissions
- publish_actions – Used when pushing data to Facebook through our API. Ex: Post status API.
- read_friendlists – Used to access the custom lists of friends a user has created. (does not access the complete list of a user’s friends for the given app. It allows you to request the friends that are also a part of your app environment)
- read_stream – Used for reading the posts in a person’s feed.
- user_status – Used to access a person’s status messages.
- user_events – Used to retrieve a list of events that a user has subscribed to.
- user_groups – Used to retrieve a list of groups a user is a member of.
- user_likes – Used to access a list of all pages and objects that a user has liked.
- user_videos – Used to access the videos a user has uploaded or been tagged in.
- user_photos – Used to access the images a user has uploaded or been tagged in.
Note: Facebook requires that you have accepted permissions to publish_actions as well when requesting the user_photos API. - user_tagged_places – Used to access the places a user has been tagged in.
- user_about_me – Used to access the user’s bio/about information.
- user_birthday – Used to access the date and month of a user’s birthday, it may or may not include the year depending on their privacy settings.
- user_education_history – Used to access a user’s education history.
- user_hometown – Used to access the user’s hometown.
- user_location – Used to access the user’s current city.
- user_relationship_details – Used to access the person’s interested in data.
- user_relationships – Used to access details on the user’s relationship status, significant other and family data.
- user_religion_politics – Used to access the user’s religious and political affiliations.
- user_work_history – Used to access details on the user’s work history and list of employers.
For a glimpse at the whole set of Facebook Permissions and what they can be used for, please check on Facebook’s Permissions Reference.
Tip: Not sure which Permissions to request? Talk to your Socital representative!