Facebook/CC Integration!

[Roger_Dooley]

Here's another exciting new feature for CC members - you can post links to new threads you start automatically to your Facebook Wall, and/or receive daily notifications of replies to your CC thread subscriptions. Note that we are very concerned about privacy issues, and you will have to manually opt-in to this by clicking the "Connect with Facebook" button. And, at any time, you can adjust your preferences in your CC Control Panel (just click My Control Panel, then "Edit Options" and scroll down). More details from our dev team:

Once you connect and grant us the appropriate permissions, CC will publish new threads that you create to your wall. It will also send you notifications - either daily or weekly - when other users reply to your threads (your subscribed threads + threads that you have created).

Once you connect, you have complete control over the application direct from your CC control panel. You can control whether CC posts to your wall, or how often (if at all) we send you notifications. As usual, you have control over the application from your FaceBook account.

PRIVACY. You have complete privacy/anonymity on CC regarding your Facebook account. We display your full name and profile picture ONLY when you first connect, and only YOU see it. This is so that you know you have actually connected with the real Facebook. No other users on CC will EVER see your real name or your profile image. They will have no idea if you’ve even connected with Facebook. When CC posts a thread to your news feed on Facebook, there is a link back to the thread. Of course, only your Facebook friends even see this post on your Facebook profile. There is no indication in the wall post what your CC username is, though they can figure it out pretty easily if they go and read the thread. Again, only your Facebook friends see the wall posts. If you want more privacy, feel free to turn off the “publish to news feed” feature and just receive notifications on Facebook.

What it comes down to is that our Facebook Connect app is simply a syndication service. It publishes your activity to Facebook and it sends you notifications. It is not intended to help you find your other Facebook friends on CC (many Facebook Connect apps do this.)

We know that daily notification of replies isn't great for up to the minute monitoring of a thread you are interested in, but that limit is there to prevent loading up your notifications with a ton of alerts from CC. Our current "immediate" email notification can be used if there is a particular thread or two you want to watch closely.

We hope you find this useful and respectful of your privacy. Obviously, if your CC username is totally secret, i.e., not even your friends know, don't sign up to post your new thread starts to your wall!

Enjoy, and feel free to offer suggestions for improvement. Thanks for your participation at CC!

[soadquake981]

As I would say on Facebook: "Like"

[House of London]

Sooner or later their going to have College confidential license plates.

[SouthJerseyChessMom]

This seems like a slippery, and perhaps, dangerous slope.

[Roger_Dooley]

Those who find a slope slippery and dangerous ought to avoid getting onto it.

Seriously, we have tried to take privacy into account at every step so that no one need expose any info they don't want to. Most significantly, one can't track back from CC to a Facebook ID. Those able to view one's Facebook wall could go in the other direction, hence the ability to opt out of posting thread starts to one's wall.

On the plus side, posting those thread starts is likely to bring one's friends into the discussion and improve the quality of response. We'll see what kind of feedback we get as people use it.

[ds143]

yeah, while i love the way that you guys are adding new features (i.e. the iPhone app is brilliant), i could definitely see some potential consequences. by knowing someone's CC account, they'll know their GPA, test scores and grades from the chances threads, and where they're applying to. this may not be a problem for some people, but i wouldn't quickly sign up for the integration before thinking about it.

[mommusic]

Well, since it seems I no longer get email notifications about new posts, I guess I'll try the facebook angle and see if it works.

[applicannot]

Yeah, I don't get email notifications about new posts either. I don't get them for PMs, though today out of the blue I did get one.

[aabbcc1789]

i think there is a reason for the "confidential" in the name college confidential...fb kinda just blows that all away lol...

[Neon Green]

"i think there is a reason for the "confidential" in the name college confidential...fb kinda just blows that all away lol..."

yep, basically.

[Roger_Dooley]

We realize that many people still want to stay "confidential." At the same time, I'm seeing much greater openness and willingness to be more transparent on the Web. We're trying to accommodate both philosophies with this opt-in and controllable feature.

[paki786]

I actually dont want to publicize this website. I like the confidential/eliteist feel of this site lol

[Sezon]

The quasi-merger between FB/CC is definitely a nice addition for those of us who are commonly on FB, but not necessarily on CC. Though, as aforementioned, the intent of the integration does remove our confidentiality, at least partially. I wouldn't like for any of my FB "friends" to see how I'm progressing academically, superbly or not. And, showing that you're a part of CC, on FB, would give off an aura of elitism, which really isn't a good way to be perceived.

[Billy Pilgram]

By proceeding, you are allowing College Confidential to access your information

Don't neglect to read and understand the ramifications of the above small print agreement if you choose to connect.

[early_college]

I connected to it yesterday, but now I agree with everyone else. I don't want my friends knowing my GPA and other info. Any way to get disconnected from facebook? Thank you