User guide

Facebook integration

SonicHANDY offers a way to query Facebook servers for a certain data, which includes friend profile pictures and friends list.

Data is retrieved in a secure way, and only by your permission and authorization.

To retrieve data from Facebook servers, SonicHANDY must first obtain the so called "access token". Access token is a unique security hash code for the session, which must be appended to every Facebook data request command. Facebook servers use access token information to determine whether the access is authorized, for which user, and by which application. This way, a misuse of user's private data is nearly impossible.

Facebook grants access token to the application only after you authenticate with them. To allow you to authenticate, SonicHANDY opens up a browser window from inside the application which displays Facebook login page (Internet connection is required). After authentication, Facebook will send back the needed acces token. Please note: Your login information is not saved in any way by SonicHANDY, moreover it even can't be accessed by the application because it is encapsulated inside the browser window.

With the access token provided, SonicHANDY can not retrieve all your Facebook data. Instead, it can only access the data for which you have granted permissions to it. By default, SonicHANDY requests only the basic, minimal set of permissions: to access public user data (profile pictures), and the friends list.

You grant permissions to SonicHANDY the first time you authenticate with the application, on a screen following the login screen. If at a later time you want to revoke the permissions, this can be done on the Facebook web.

Access token lasts for a short period of time (a few hours), after which it is invalidated and cannot be used again for data retrieval. You must then log in again for a new access token to be obtained. If you check the option 'Keep me logged in' on the login screen, access token won't expire for a month or so. You will not be prompted to enter login information during that time.