After the data scandal surrounding Facebook, its users are now taking a closer look
As derStandard and Futurezone report, the Facebook company's Android app had access to calls and messages in previous versions. Not only was metadata from SMS and MMS saved, but the phone log was also read out. This was confirmed not only by a New Zealand programmer, but also by numerous other users to Ars Technica and Ars Technica editor Sean Gallagher himself.
After the Cambridge Analytica data scandal, people are now taking a closer look at what data Facebook collects, how and when. This also applies to the New Zealand programmer Dylan McKay. To find out what data the social media giant collects about him, he requested an archive with all the files stored on Facebook as a ZIP file and discovered that the Facebook app was logging his phone calls for years:
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
According to derStandard, a Facebook spokesman explained that data transmission was optional. The user is free to give the Facebook app permission for this or not.
“If you are truly concerned about your privacy, you should not share contact information and call details with applications,”
advises Ars Technica.
Data recording was only made possible by Android. Specifically affected are Android versions prior to 4.1 (Jelly Bean) and even when the permissions system was changed with API version 16, applications were able to get around this by being written in earlier versions of the API.
However, this option has also been deactivated since October 2017.
Further links on the subject of data protection:
Data protection: This is what you can do to protect yourself!
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