How can I get my Facebook app users to change their settings?

Question

The default settings for which information friends can share does NOT allow friends to grant an application access to "interested in and looking for" and "religions and political views".

Most Facebook users have not changed these settings, meaning that only the users that have explicitly allowed friends to share interested in information will show up in my iPhone app's query.

To see what I am talking about go to: http://www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=privacy, click the "Edit your settings for using applications, games and websites." link, then click "Edit Settings" in the "Info accessible through your friends" section. Here you will see what permissions you allow your friends to share. There is no override for this. If you don't want the information shared, your friends can't force you to share it.

So I'm wondering, what is the simplest method for me to get my friends who will use this iPhone app to be able to change that setting to check their Interested In setting so that way the app can use it? This app actually relies a lot on this setting being enabled.

Answer 1

So I see you were unhappy with my answer on this question. As I said before there is no work around to this. The "easiest" way to get your friends to change this setting is to ask them to change this setting. There is no API or tool you can do this with. Frankly, your application sounds like it is boarding very close on trying to break Facebook's privacy policies.

Like I said before, if you want to get this information about friends, then have your current users invite their friends to use your app, once the friend accepts the invite ask those people to provide the "user_relationship_details" permission. Then you will have the information.

In short, the only way you are going to get a person's interested in information is if they have authorized your app.

Answer 2

"Hello $friend, please change your settings so my app can read that info".

There's nothing more you can do programatically; this is by design and it's a Good Thing - I for one don't want any ol' FB app to mess with my settings.