Facebook Login used 850 million times per month, updated to separate sharing requests

Facebook announced that it’s making some tweaks to its social log-in service, Facebook Login, which the company said is now used 850 million times per month.

The service lets users sign in to services with the same e-mail addresses and passwords they use to log into the social network itself — a built-in set of security credentials that makes it easier for users to sign up for new services. But Facebook said that it is currently rolling out a new update that will address some user concerns that using their Facebook log-in information also meant agreeing to let outside services post things to their personal profiles.

With a new update, Facebook is asking developers to separate sharing requests from Facebook Login. So users can, say, sign up for a music service without worrying that all of their Facebook contacts will see they’ve listened to “Total Eclipse of the Heart” 17 times in the past week. With its increased focus on social log-in, Facebook is making a play for being not only a social network, but also an online identity provider, an area that other firms such as Google and Twitter are also pursuing.