Facebook Deletes Secret Crush Application over Spyware Claim

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Facebook has removed the Secret Crush application due to its link with a notorious spyware company.

Facebook one of the biggest social networking site confirmed the breakup on Monday: “Facebook is committed to user safety and security and, to that end, its Terms of Service for developers explicitly state that applications should not use adware and spyware,” a statement from the company read. “We have contacted the developers and have disabled the Secret Crush application for violating Facebook Platform Terms of Service.”

It worked by Lonely Facebook users eager to find which of their friends had the hots for them instead only got spyware. Invitations to lure members to download the application with the message “One of your friends might have a crush on you!” originated Zango, a company famous for adware.

After downloading users were informed they needed invite 5 friends to Secret Crush and then they downloaded the “Crush calculator” and this is where the adware was located. Poor Facebook users they never found out who had the crush…

Zango has publicly denied involvement with Secret Crush, publishing a blog post dismissing Fortinet’s claims and saying that Secret Crush had not disappeared–it had just changed its name to My Admirer.

Spyware and adware claims are nothing new in the social-networking world, with MySpace.com, having had issues with adware masked as YouTube videos.

In its statement concerning the Secret Crush take down, Facebook responded pre-emptively to potential criticism by stressing that members should be aware that they are dealing with third-party content on the Facebook Platform.

“Users should employ the same precautions while downloading software from Facebook applications that they use when downloading software on their desktop,” the company warned.”

Theres going to be a lot of worried people with AllFacebook reporting that 1.5 million users had installed Secret Crush before it was taken down, this kind of situation will certainly add to the debate over how attentive a company built on user- and developer-generated content needs to be.

If your one of the millions then please check your computer for adware.

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