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Facebook Nixes Access To Chats Outside Of Messenger Walled Garden (arstechnica.co.uk)

Posted by msmash on from the walled-garden dept.

Tom Mendelsohn, reporting for Ars Technica: Some smartphone users of Facebook are reporting that they're no longer able to access their messages from the mobile site, and that they're being directed towards the free content ad network's dedicated Messenger app. Users of the regular Facebook mobile app were shunted over to Facebook Messenger to access their chats a while ago. Now, folk who access the service on their phone's Web browsers, or via third-party apps such as Tinfoil or Metal, are beginning to find that they can no longer view their messages. Complaints are popping up from users who are being told by Facebook that "your conversations are moving to Messenger." Some Android users are even finding themselves automatically redirected to the download link on the Google Play store when they try and view their messages on the mobile site.

9 of 155 comments (clear)

  1. Nothing to see. by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You use a free service you have to accept their structure and design. Seriously, I'm tired of all the bitching about Facebook, don't like it, don't use it.

    --
    If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    1. Re: Nothing to see. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Bitching is how you get them to change it, just like how you're bitching to get others to change their behaviour.

  2. Re: I'm curious... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Their mobile site nice and lightweight. It's not the best, but it's been way ahead of their app for usability for some time now. The push to update their app weekly has turned it into a bloated, unnavigable kludge.

  3. Permissions by phorm · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When it installing Messenger, it "needs" access to
    * Identity
    * Contacts
    * Location
    * SMS
    * Phone
    * Media/Photos
    * Camera
    * Microphone
    * Wifi connection info
    * Device and call info

    Basically, EVERY bit of sensitive data on my phone. There was a recent radio broadcast where they were able to determine that FB was checking your location multiple times per second (whether or not you were using the app).
    So yeah, no f'ing way that PoS app is getting installed on my device.

    1. Re:Permissions by q4Fry · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That's cute. What happens when you tap the Menu and look at "All Permissions" ?

      Does it find all accounts on your phone? Linking you to any publicly available API data for any of those accounts, plus whatever non-public data Facebook managed to wheedle out of the organization (because, you know, "we're Facebook")
      Does it view Wi-Fi connections? Which they can cross-reference against anyone else who does have location enabled. Sure, maybe they don't have a GPS lock on you 24/7, but they can still tell where you went.
      Does it retrieve running apps? You know, to scope out the competition. Or to note down that you have $embarrassing_app running. Or whatever.

      And I'd be surprised if it stopped there.

  4. Remember when others started this? by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yahoo, MSN, ICQ, they all tried to eliminate competitors by disallowing using competing messaging systems together with theirs.

    In other words, FB is working on making itself as obsolete as these market leaders once were. Took them shorter than I gave them, actually.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  5. Garbage by fieldstone · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The point where Facebook forces me to install software on my phone that drains my battery is the point where I stop using Facebook messenger entirely. Obnoxious but typical. I don't know why anyone is surprised at anything they do after their "real name" policy that actually puts LGBT people and abuse victims in physical danger.

  6. Mobile sites more secure than social apps by dwheeler · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Mobile sites tend to be far more secure for users than social apps (you can say "privacy" instead if you want, though many people don't understand the difference). Most social apps, like this one, want total ownership of your phone - and therefore they own you. They demand access to your microphone, camera, location, contact list, and everything else. Big Brother never got so much data. In contrast, the websites don't get access to all that stuff. Facebook doesn't pay me enough to completely give up all my privacy.

    --
    - David A. Wheeler (see my Secure Programming HOWTO)
  7. Re:I'm curious... by shortscruffydave · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Assuming you want to use Facebook Messenger, why wouldn't you want to just use the app? I can certainly understand not wanting to use Facebook Messenger (or not wanting to use Facebook at all), but why a strong preference for using messenger through a mobile browser?

    When you install the app onto your phone, you grant it certain rights, like access to your address book. Just accessing the FB mobile site through a browser stops FB from getting access to stuff you might not want them to have access to.

    I remember a case a few years ago when the FB allocated FB-specific email addresses to its users. The app would actually scan through the contacts list on your phone and if it recognised the email address of one of your contacts as being another FB user it would *automatically and silently* change the email details on your phone's contacts database to use the new FB-assigned address.