Facebook:
You may have seen some recent reports that Facebook has been logging people’s call and SMS (text) history without their permission.
This is not the case.
And:
Call and text history logging is part of an opt-in feature for people using Messenger or Facebook Lite on Android. This helps you find and stay connected with the people you care about, and provides you with a better experience across Facebook. People have to expressly agree to use this feature. If, at any time, they no longer wish to use this feature they can turn it off in settings, or here for Facebook Lite users, and all previously shared call and text history shared via that app is deleted. While we receive certain permissions from Android, uploading this information has always been opt-in only.
There is a lot to process here. I can tell you that I never intended for Facebook to keep all this data on me. Clearly, at some point, I must have opted in, I can accept that, but seeing the level of detail Facebook has kept feels disingenuous at best.
When I opt-in to allow an app to access my contacts for example, I’m thinking “use as needed”, not “scrape as much data as possible and squirrel it away”. Worlds of difference between those two.
And what the hell is Facial Recognition Data and why is Facebook saving it? If you haven’t seen this yet, check this post.
Wonder what Google has on you? We’ll get to that next.
Just wait until Google buys Facebook and combines the data.
The facial recognition data is obvious. Their systems are learning what each user looks like so they can be tagged in photos. Every time you appear in somebody’s photos, that’s being logged and friends-connections are being postulated. I find it alarming, but it’s obvious why that would be kept permanently.
Opt-in on Facebook messenger equated to “asking to sync your contacts every time you open the App until you accidentally say yes”.
I distinctly remember having to decline that option every time I launched the app for months.
Even now if you look in the “People” tab in the App, there’s a notification saying “Your friends are waiting – Let Facebook automatically upload new and updated contacts as you ad them to your phone”.
Facial rec is so they can process images and ID you. Yeah, I turned that off.
“When I opt-in to allow an app to access my contacts for example, I’m thinking “use as needed”, not “scrape as much data as possible and squirrel it away”. Worlds of difference between those two.”
Which goes to the point Jobs was making in the video you linked the other day – you ask, ask clearly and make sure you’re transparent about what you’re doing.
You’re using an Android device?
yeah i hate that thing. sure sign of a shady company trying to nag/trick you into granting access.