There’s an app for that! Facebook imports all your contacts from your smartphone.

Do you log into Facebook from you cell phone? Were you aware all of the contacts you have stored in your cell phone show up on your Facebook’s friends list? The phonebook, now called Contacts has been around for awhile, but recently received attention after rumors began to spread claiming these numbers could be viewed by other Facebook users. Other Facebook users cannot see your stored phone numbers for your Facebook friends, but you can when accessing your account. In an effort to streamline communications and (once again) place Facebook in line for being the only platform you need to communicate with all your contacts online, the social media giant has taken the approach of creating a phonebook for its users.  The phonebook includes numbers that 1) you may have synced from your phone or 2) your friends have chosen to share with you via Facebook.

For reference, here is Facebook’s recent response to those rumors suggesting stored phone numbers can be seen by everyone:

“Rumors claiming that your phone contacts are visible to everyone on Facebook are false. Our Contacts list, formerly called Phonebook, has existed for a long time. The phone numbers listed there were either added by your friends themselves and made visible to you, or you have previously synced your phone contacts with Facebook. Just like on your phone, only you can see these numbers.”

Want to see how many of your contacts you have numbers for? Connect to your Facebook account, go to the top right of the screen and click on ACCOUNT. Click EDIT FRIENDS on the left side of the screen and then click CONTACTS.

Picture Source: Huffington Post

Convenient? Perhaps. Intrusive? Maybe. Whatever your comfort level, should you wish to remove this feature, you can take the following steps:  1) From the list of contacts, click on REMOVE ALL YOUR IMPORTED CONTACTS and follow the instructions. As an FYI, removed contacts will be re-imported automatically unless you turn off syncing. To turn off syncing, go to your phone’s Facebook App, click on FRIENDS and go to the SYNC feature (for iPhone users, this is located in the box with the arrow at the top right).

Follow these steps and you shouldn’t see any of your personal stored contacts on your Facebook’s Contact list.

What Facebook Privacy concerns do you have?