Facebook makes SSL mandatory for apps

Facebook has taken a step towards safer browsing by making an SSL certificate mandatory for all external provider’s apps. With an SSL (Secure Socket Layer) data is encrypted online making it less fragile for potential misuse. App sources that do not hold the certificate will not be accessible on HTTPS mode.

So far we are used to secured browsing in data sensitive applications such as banking and e-commerce. However, since many Facebook apps also store user information (like it or not) this seems like a reasonable step in positioning Facebook as a more data secure platform. You can read more about this on Facebook’s Developer Blog.

The HTTPS support for all Facebook apps (page tab and canvas) has been mandatory from October on. HammerKit has taken the necessary steps to comply with this requirement to make sure that our customers’ apps keep providing the best possible user experience.

Being (in)famous of their dynamic nature, the next rather big change is mapped for early January 2012. Facebook will then drop the support of FBML (Facebook Markup Language) for new apps. Existing FBML apps will only work until June 1st. HTML/CSS/Javascript are to be used instead, which is good news for external developers (such as us) who use iframe embedding for FB pages.