A new study suggests that the creators of Facebook applications may have access to more of their users’ information than those users may realize.

Adrienne Felt, a senior at the University of Virginia, who conducted the study, said this puts Facebook users at risk for invasion of privacy.

“When a user installs an application, that application assumes privileges to personal information to all users,” Felt said.

Felt said when a user installs an application, he or she may also inadvertently give away their friends’ profile information. An application creator can ask for profile information from anyone who gives someone permission to view their profile, Felt said.

“Users can set their privacy settings to turn off applications completely or limit the amount of information your friends’ application can see,” Felt said. “However, there is no way to limit [an] installed application’s access to information.”

Sophomore Krasimir Kehayov said she worries application owners will sell demographic statistics to commercial companies.

“Some of them may gather that information for commercial [use], which is abusing your privacy as a user,” he said.

Doreen Hettich-Atkins, coordinator of special services and programs, is a member of Ithaca College’s Facebook Task Force, which tries to find ways to help students deal with the new dangers of privacy invasion on social networks such as Facebook. She said that the dangers of social networking are very real, and carelessness can lead to harmful outcomes.

“We heard stories about people who put their entire course schedule including each time their course meets and where it meets,” she said. “Not a great idea if you don’t want to become the victim of a stalker.”

Michael Fergusson, a coordinator for Kinz, a social networking developer, has designed and maintained two Facebook applications for the company. He said though his application does take account for information from users and their friends, it is only used to improve the application quality.

“We are not interested in content for personal reasons,” he said. “We use information from profiles to better the application.”

He said that this application uses information for several reasons, one of which is to better pair ads with the interest of the individual user.

He also said Facebook does not allow applications to store information for more then 24-hours and that the Web site can, and at times does, suspend applications and users for violating policy.

“Ultimately, it comes down to trust,” Fergusson said. “When a user logs on to an application they trust many parties, including Facebook, the owner of the applications, the Internet service provider, the courts and the legal system.

The user can play a vital part to protect their privacy, Fergusson said.

“My advice: know who you’re dealing with,” he said.

Senior Kara Siddall said she uses the privacy settings to control who can see her profile but said she was unaware that she needed to further protect herself

from applications.

“I don’t want them to have all of my information without asking me,” she said.

Mike Cohen, a Cornell graduate and amateur Facebook application creator, said he first set his application to automatically invite all the friends of a user who signed on to an application.  As his application reached hundreds of users, Facebook flagged him. This forced Cohen to allow users to invite people of their choice.

“Developers like me want a viral kind of nature [to applications], but Facebook users are going to get sick of it,” he said.

Hettich-Atkins said that it is important for the school to get involved to help protect its community when it comes to social networking.

“I think students as well as faculty and staff often forget that it not only connects you with people you know, but it also connects you to people you don’t know,” she said. “It potentially connects you with the entire world.”