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Facebook Denies Accessing Users' Text Messages

Posted by samzenpus on from the it-was-the-other-guys dept.

quantr writes "Facebook is being accused of snooping on its users' text messages, but the social network says the accusations are inaccurate and misleading. The company is among a wide-ranging group of Web entities, including Flickr and YouTube, that are using smartphone apps to access text message data and other personal information, according to a Sunday Times report (behind a paywall). The newspaper said Facebook 'admitted' to reading users' text messages during a test of its own messaging service. The report also says information such as user location, contacts list, and browser history are often accessed and sometimes transmitted to third-party companies, including advertisers."

19 of 130 comments (clear)

  1. Worst? by SJHillman · · Score: 4, Informative

    What's worse? The the fact that they have to deny these kind of accusations or the fact that they're probably lying?

    1. Re:Worst? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The fact that any old app can apparently access your contacts, text messages and browser history.

    2. Re:Worst? by cpotoso · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Mod parent up. It is really a very big design flaw (on purpose?) of ios and android. Should not be up to the apps to decide whether they can access private data.

    3. Re:Worst? by Enderandrew · · Score: 5, Informative

      With iOS, apps just simply have access to this data by default. With Android, for each app you have to specifically grant access to these things while installing the app.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    4. Re:Worst? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Many smartphones come with facebook pre-installed. I had to root my phone to uninstall it.

    5. Re:Worst? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Interesting

      What's worse? The the fact that they have to deny these kind of accusations or the fact that they're probably lying?

      You know when a corporation says "the accusations are inaccurate and misleading" that they are guilty as hell.

      How hard is it to say, "No, we never, ever access private messages or contact information for any reason"?

      It's like when a politician says, "To be perfectly honest..." Somebody needs to hit the crash cymbals whenever those words are spoken, to indicate ALERT! LIE COMING....

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    6. Re:Worst? by evilRhino · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Since android is open source, there are ROMs that actually add this functionality to the OS. It was available on Cyanogenmod 7.1.0, for example.

    7. Re:Worst? by SJHillman · · Score: 3, Funny

      But then how would we hear the politicians over the constant crashing of cymbals? On the bright side, assassins would no longer need silencers.

    8. Re:Worst? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The problem is, with the stock android install unlike, for example, Symbian, you can't just say 'no, the app can't have this permission but install it anyway'. I was looking for an app to read QR codes a while ago. The first five I found on the market all required full access to my address book. WTF? I skipped installing them, but I'm sure that they'd have worked without this capability. The other big UI problem is that the apps don't say WHY they need these privileges.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    9. Re:Worst? by Calos · · Score: 3, Informative

      Look for:
      LBE Privacy Guard
      Permissions Denied

      --
      I vote based on politicians' actions, unless contrary to my preconceptions. Often wrong, never uncertain. #iamthe99%
  2. Why are people surprised? by mr1911 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Facebook is a free service. Facebook users and their data are the commodity being sold to advertisers. The business model isn't a secret.

    There are two ways to grow revenue with this model. 1) Sign up more users. 2) Invade deeper into the user data so the data sold to advertisers is more relevant and worth more.

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    Any offense taken to this post is at your sole discretion.
    1. Re:Why are people surprised? by scorp1us · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Because there is the idea that what you enter into one app on your phone is not available to another app.
      If I accept the "terms of use" for facebook, I do not also consent to having them go through my text messages.
      When I turn off location services for facebook I do not expect them to still access my location.

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    2. Re:Why are people surprised? by Culture20 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      People are surprised because this is a cell phone app reading data that is irrelevant to the app's function. It would be like if Google had a picture editing program that sent google a snapshot of your entire filesystem directory listings. Surprising.

    3. Re:Why are people surprised? by phrostie · · Score: 5, Funny

      But the T in Facebook Stands for Trustworthy.

      Oh wait,,,.

  3. Smartphones by ciderbrew · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I wish I didn't install their app on my HTC ages ago. It's off now; but it did get the contact data from the phone! I only use the browser for FB now and no way am I installing that Malware again. - Events details locked in FB are a pain.

  4. Well yeah. by TheSpoom · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I stopped using and uninstalled the Facebook Android app when I saw that it was turning on my phone's GPS as soon as I opened it. Sorry, but there's no legitimate reason for the GPS to be on all the time in this app's context.

    --
    It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
    - E. Debs
  5. Re:is that allowed on mobile APIs? by colfer · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Android phones in the U.S. come with apps that cannot be deleted, depending on the service. Typically: Facebook, Twitter. You can choose to decline updates, but you cannot remove the app. Look at the comments on this app: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.virginmobileusa.vmlive&hl=en Of them 90% are along the lines of this one: "This program is garbage I wish I could get this crap off my phone."

  6. Why aren't the apps properly sand-boxed? by scorp1us · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think I should be able to go in and modify any app's permissions after the fact. The "accept permissions" button should only set those requested permissions as default, then I should have an app that can revoke them. Currently the app developer gets all the power because people don't know what the permissions tie to and how they actually get used/abused. Such an ability would make app authors think twice...

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  7. Re:is that allowed on mobile APIs? by Enderandrew · · Score: 3, Informative

    Android doesn't do this. Certain carriers push out custom versions of Android where a small handful of the shovel-ware apps can't be deleted. But Facebook and Twitter can be deleted on all the major carriers (Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon).

    However, you can always root your phone if you really want to delete these shovel-ware apps.

    --
    http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.