Facebook to temporarily disable mobile number sharing feature

Social networking site Facebook will be temporarily disable a feature that allows users to share their address and mobile number with external websites and applications.

This particular feature, allowing users to share address and mobile number with application developers, was introduced late last week.

"We agree and we are making changes to help ensure you only share this information (address and mobile number) when you intend to do so. We will be working to launch these updates as soon as possible, and will be temporarily disabling this feature until those changes are ready," Facebook said in a blog.

The move came after "some useful feedback that we could make people more clearly aware of when they are granting access to this data," it added.

Facebook, which is estimated to have over 600 million users worldwide, said it expects to re-enable the improved feature in the next few weeks.

According to the blog, the feature had required users to explicitly allow application developers to access their address and mobile number.

However, users were not allowed to share friends' address or mobile number with applications.

In recent times, Facebook has come under criticism for some of its privacy policies, which some sections feel does not fully protect the privacy of users.