Facebook blocks contact-exporting tool for Google Chrome

Could Facebook be increasingly viewing Google+ as a threat? Even as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly trying out Google+ for himself, his social network is allegedly blocking a tool for Google's Chrome browser that allows people to copy their Facebook contacts into Google. Mohamed Mansour, the developer of the "Facebook Friend Exporter" app for Google's Chrome browser, said that this has forced him to work on a new version of his app. "Facebook is trying so hard to not allow you to export your friends. They started to remove emails of your friends from your profile by today July 5th 2011. It will no longer work for many people," he said. He said a new version with a different design is currently deploying, and will use a different approach. The exporter tool aims to extract data from Facebook and export them to Google Contacts or to CSV format, Mansour said. "You gave them (Facebook) your friends and allowed them to store that data, and you have right to take it back out! Facebook doesn't own my friends," he said in explaining his tool. Meanwhile, tech site CNET said that many users of the Facebook Friend Exporter tool reported that it no longer worked, producing only names and the address of their respective Facebook pages, but not the e-mail addresses of their contacts. "It's become a cat-and-mouse game. Mansour is working to sidestep Facebook's obstacles," CNET said. But CNET also noted that the tool may clash with Section 3.2 of Facebook's terms of service, which state, "You will not collect users' content or information, or otherwise access Facebook, using automated means (such as harvesting bots, robots, spiders, or scrapers) without our permission." — TJD, GMA News