It's that time once again farmers: Zynga wants further permission from you to access your Facebook account and perform actions with it. You'll see this via a "Your Help Needed!" window that will appear at random when logging into your farm in FarmVille, but exactly what Zynga is asking for is incredibly vague. Luckily, we're here to help you decipher it.We're told that we will "Get gifts from FarmVille" and access the "Instant Posts" feature by allowing Zynga these further permissions, but what exactly does that mean? When clicking on the "Learn More" button, we can see that the "Get Gifts" part is really just a permission that will allow FarmVille to send you Facebook notifications when your neighbors send you gifts (or likely whenever else the game feels like telling you to come back to your farms), while the Instant Posts will allow you to post news items and item requests to your wall automatically without confirming that you do want to post them in-game.
In exchange for accepting both of these options, you'll receive a free Blue Quarter Horse in your inventory. However, before you go accepting, think about what this really means. To put it simply, allowing Zynga these two extra permissions will mean that you'll be seeing a lot more FarmVille content even when not playing the game. For instance, the specific "Instant Posts" permission also states that FarmVille will be able to post "status updates, photos and more" on your behalf." There's no telling what sorts of items will automatically end up on your News Feed or timeline, so while you will be able to manually remove anything you don't like, make sure you think before actually giving the game the right to post them as you in the first place.
All of this being said, it's sad to see Zynga presenting these options in such vague, even misleading terms. You don't have to allow either one to be accepted on your account, and your gameplay experience won't change if you choose to decline them (you simply won't receive the free horse). This is one time when it's better to take an extra second to think about how much of your account you want Zynga to have access to before saying yes just for a pretty new item.
Will you give Zynga access to these two new permissions?
Well, what do you think? Have you already granted Zynga these extra permissions? How much access is too much when it comes to game developers and your account? Sound off in the comments!