I must admit, I was faintly surprised when I logged into Facebook over the weekend and, out of nowhere, saw something similar to this pop up in the middle of the screen:
...yikes. Seems like Facebook added in a live chat facility a couple of weeks ago - the first I knew about it was on Saturday when I had an endless stream of people popping up handing me an endless set of variations on the word "Hello".
Incredibly annoying, and you can laugh if you want, but I couldn't work out how to switch the accursed thing off. What did I do? Easy, I simply shut down Facebook altogether and did something else instead. We've all seen killer apps before, but it's been a while since I saw an app kill off the desire to use the parent website.
Anyway, FaceTime products allow you to control exactly what Facebook applications are allowed for use in the workplace - which I think is pretty nifty, personally - so I was curious as to whether or not we had measures in place to lock down this chat feature too. Well, one quick check fired from the UK to the States and back again (via a quick stop-off in Bangalore) and the answer is that yes, we do provide lockdown for this application if so desired.
I never thought I'd feel smug about being able to lock something down on a website, but wow - there you go. Of course, that's great for enterprise customers, but what about home users? Well just in case you don't know, the answer is as simple as clicking the "Chat" option at the bottom of your browser, then hitting "go offline":
...problem solved. If you want to see exactly how big a deal Facebook applications have become, check out this link on the GreynetsGuide. We secure and control every application listed there, which is frankly terrifying but there we go. For now, feel happy in the knowledge that you won't be dragged into a hundred conversations from some random person you added simply because they knew a friend of a friend of a friend.....
Leave a comment