I have a number of pending requests from friends to install the "I want to add your birthday" application.
Given that I already have my birthday (day and month only) visible on my profile, what are the advantages to me of installing this application?
With your birthday visible your friends are notified of the date on the right hand side of your home page - just below the recent activity feed. To me this seems to be enough. What am I missing?
The Privacy Policy of the app is below and is basically a non-privacy policy in that the Mybirthday app pretty much takes all of your phone/facebook data and uses it to send you marketing info which you agree to by using the app.
Its basically a legal advert virus that relies on one person to sign up and invite all their phone/facebook contacts (which it collects of the names,numbers,emails,messages of) and what do you get in return? Aside from the multitude of direct and spam marketing likely heading your way when your data is sold to the app's 3rd party advertisers you get a tool that Facebook already offers you?
The types of personal information collected in conjunction with the activities listed above will vary depending on the activity. The requested information may include: (i) your name, (ii) mailing address, (iii) telephone number, (iv) email address, and, for those purchasing products or services online, credit card and billing information; and (v) information about the identity of your friends.
http://www.mycalendarbook.com/privacy.php For some activities, MyCalendar may also ask you to provide other non-personal information such as: (i) your age or date of birth; (ii) your gender; (iii) your game and platform preferences; (iv) information about the hardware you may own and/or games you may have recently purchased; (v) your interests, websites, friend information and fan pages; and, (vi) other service-related information (collectively referred to as "demographic information"). If demographic information is collected for an activity that also requires personal information, MyCalendar may combine your demographic information with your personal information. Before providing the Service any email addresses or phone numbers of your friends, you should obtain their consent.
To be sincere, in favor of what you believe, the benefits are not that much important for all audience and you're right about Facebook built-in birthday reminder being enough for us!
But there may be some people who care much than normal about birthdays! People who need to be aware of their friends' Bday 10 days before or in a customized manner for each to prepare themselves for buying gifts maybe (!).
But I think key features are:
For more info see here. My experience about my friends shows none of my own friends use any of the above features and simply the Facebook built-in birthday reminder is good enough for them!
