BlackBerry optional

Despite its recent privacy burn over the Beacon, Facebook is flirting yet again with the patience of its users. The site is currently testing a system that slips links to its mobile application onto smartphones — without the permission of users.

At present, only BlackBerry customers on the T-Mobile network are affected.

Spokeswoman Kara Walker for T-Mobile explained the icon is "not an application until you choose to use it." Once accessed, it brings users to a mobile website, where they are asked to download the complete Facebook app.

In this way it is positioned more like an affiliate advertising opportunity than another creeping infringement of privacy by Facebook.

The Facebook icon can be conveniently hidden on smartphones, but — much like the controversial AOL icon that oft appears on new PCs — it cannot be deleted.

According to Brandee Barker, director of corporate communications, users must still choose to use the mobile app; no personal information is at risk. Data will not be shared with carriers or handheld device makers.

Barker also asserted Facebook has no direct relationship with T-Mobile; it deals directly with Research in Motion, which makes the BlackBerry handhelds. The pair have reportedly been working together since October, when both firms announced the development of an application to bring information from Facebook to BlackBerry devices, beginning October 24 with T-Mobile customers.

Barker is often called upon to clarify misunderstandings that occur between Facebook and the outside world. She did so when a Facebook code leak triggered fraud concerns, when the company was rumored to purchase Chinese site Zhanzuo, and when Facebook was accused of closing a group devoted to LGBT Arabs (via Fast Company).

Executive Director Jeffrey Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy calls the mobile icon issue illustrative of a "basic problem" among Facebook's management. "Their need to fatten their bank account is confounding their need to protect the privacy of their members," he said.

According to SiliconValley.com, it remains unclear whether Facebook will make money from distributing the icon — but, alongside T-Mobile, it is "interested in persuading people to make greater use of mobile applications."