Skype's Request for Permissions

List of he Facebook Permissions Skype Wants

I bought a new HD webcam this month and downloaded Skype software so I can talk with someone who’s living in the Middle East with spotty phone service.  To recoup my investment I decided that I would expand my Skype universe and import my Facebook contacts into Skype.  That would let me know when more people are online, and maybe increase a chance for a chat or two.

But, really, Skype. You aren’t that good a friend for me to give you all the power you’re asking for!

I like my friends too much to let Skype do everything it wants.  Here’s what the Skype app wants:

  • Access my basic information which includes my list of friends.
    This makes sense if I want Skype to give me a list of my Facebook friends that use Skype.
  • Send me email.
    Okay, they already know my email address because I registered their software on my PC.
  • Access Posts in my News Feed.
    Why? So, no.
  • Post to Facebook as me
    I think this is just a scary way of saying that Skype can post to my wall as me when I am doing something with it.  But, no.  I want Skype to get my contact information. No more.
  • Access my data at any time.
    Huh?  Why?
  • Access Facebook Chat
    This stumps me.  Do they want to access chat as me?  Would this let me use Skype to video chat on Facebook?  Tell me more, Mr. Skype.
  • Access my profile information.
    No.  And, I am running out of polite ways to ask “whatever for?”
  • Access my photos
    Skype, keep your paws off my pictures.  I’ll give you a profile picture, but the rest are off limits, okay?
  • Access my videos
    No. See above on photos.
  • Access information people share with me
    No.  They are my friends.  Find your own.

I don’t mean to pick on Skype. It’s a good service.  But, really, the intrusiveness of corporate Social Media apps feels increasingly like the stalking of a creepy, socially inept voyeur who peers into your windows whenever they need a fix of humanity.

I don’t want Skype to tell people when I am using Skype to talk with other Facebook friends.  It’s just not anyone’s business.  And, I don’t want Skype to go digging around in my circle of friends of juicy marketing opportunities.

For me, it’s “No!” to Skype and to other overreaching corporations.  I am reading the Facebook permissions they want and saying know when what they’re asking for has nothing to do with what they need to deliver service to me.