The Facebook Messenger app has some privacy issues
The issue of Facebook and personal privacy has come to the fore with the whole Cambridge Analytica debacle. Maybe you’re wondering if you should update your Facebook Messenger app settings to keep your data safe. Read on, dear reader.
#deletefacebook is trending on other free-to-users social networks that certainly wouldn’t ever allow a thing like this to happen with user data. 😉
We’ve covered our fair share of security issues here on the Ting Blog, including how to avoid phishing schemes, how to keep your data safe on free Wi-Fi and even how to flag unwanted spam and scam calls.
Anyone that has installed the Facebook Messenger app on their Android phone has been met by this cute, seemingly innocuous yeti thing asking if you’d like to “continuously upload info about your contacts…” including call and message history.
Horrified Facebook users have realised that the social network isn’t just reading their posts and sniffing around their ‘Likes’ – it’s logging all their calls and texts.
Nothing escapes Mark Zuckerberg’s all-seeing eye – with some Android users finding that the network stores complete logs of incoming and outgoing calls and texts.
One user, Dylan McKay downloaded his Facebook data and found that from October 2016 to July 2017, the network had logged every single one of his calls.
Downloaded my facebook data as a ZIP file
Somehow it has my entire call history with my partner's mum pic.twitter.com/CIRUguf4vD
— Dylan McKay [@dylanmckaynz] March 21, 2018
Mat Johnson said that he downloaded his file to find that the social network had data on every single call he had made for a year.
Download your Facebook account .zip off their site, unzip it, then go to the HTML folder, open the contact_info.htm file. See records of who you've talked to on your cell—not with the app, just on your regular cellphone—and for how long. //t.co/l9BDEJu3Hx
— Mat Johnson [@mat_johnson] March 23, 2018
Facebook issued an official statement saying that the ‘feature’ was opt-in and offering instructions on how to switch off the constant surveillance of users’ phone calls.
To turn it off [and make Facebook delete your data], go the Messenger app on Android, then tap your profile picture.
Then select ‘People’, then ‘Sync Contacts’ – and turn it off.
Facebook said, ‘ 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.’
Facebook says it never sells on this information.
The social network says, ‘If, at any point, you no longer wish to continuously upload this information, you can easily turn this feature off in your settings. ‘You can also turn off continuous call and text history logging while keeping contact uploading enabled.
‘You can also go to this page to see which contacts you have uploaded from Messenger, and you can delete all contact information you’ve uploaded from that app should you choose.’
If you’re worried, there’s several steps you can take to make your profile more private – or you can go the whole hog and deactivate or delete your account.
Thankfully, Facebook has made this much simpler.
‘Deactivating’ an account [found under Settings], lets you deactivate your account temporarily – but you can reactivate it simply by logging in.
It means your hide your profile and photos will no longer appear in Search, and your name will be ‘greyed out’.
The account can be reactivated, and some interactions [such as comments on other people’s pages] may still be visible.
To do it, click account settings at the top right of any Facebook page [in the desktop version, select Settings, then General,Manage your account.
Scroll down to click Deactivate your account.
If that’s not enough, you can delete it altogether – although you won’t be able to get your data back again.
From Facebook’s menus, it appears as if deactivating an account is the closest Facebook will let you get to deletion – but it’s actually possible to delete your account entirely.
First, save your information, by going to Settings, then the menu option, Download a copy of your Facebook data [below your General Account Settings], then Start My Archive.
More: News
Severe floods and 30,000 still without power after treble whammy of storms
Trial collapses dramatically against four men accused of shooting Sasha Johnson
York under water and thousands still without power after Storm Franklin
A page with instructions on how to permanently delete your account is available here .
Tap to expand
Once done, you have 14 days in which you can log back in and cancel the request, but after that point, there is no way to restore the data, and [crucially] people will not be able to search for or see your profile or any content you have shared on Facebook.