On January 20^th, the new Facebook Email API will go live. This means that developers’ applications will soon have the ability to send emails to their users.

For developers, there are 2 ways of using the new email sharing features:

• If the developers want to make email sharing optional, users will be prompted with this permissions dialog box:

• On the other hand, if the developers want to make email sharing a requirement, users will be prompted with this permissions dialog box:

Because of this is new development that Facebook users should be aware of, the social networking site will be posting this message at the top of the Facebook apps page for the next three months:

Facebook users should not be too worried though, because they have the option to choose to give a proxy email address instead of their real address for some applications. In addition, Facebook has privacy policies that developers must follow.

Some of Facebook’s privacy policies include:

• Prohibition to give or sell users’ email addresses to any third party or affiliate.
• Compliance with the Federal Trade Commission’s CAN-SPAM Act provisions and all other applicable spam laws.
• Clear explanation to users how their email addresses will be used.
• Clear indication in emails sent that they are from the developer and must not appear to be from Facebook or anyone else. The emails, therefore, must not include Facebook logos or brand assets, as well as the word “Facebook” in the subject line, “from” line, or body header.
• All emails to users must originate from the domain in the Facebook Developer’s application.

Despite all these rules, this new development may seem like a red flag. However, only time and experience will tell if it will really benefit both user and developer.