Tech News Facebook Crosses The Line With New Facebook Messenger App

roachieuk

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First, this is VERY important to read and understand. I’m doing my best to look out for all the Facebook Users who aren’t as tech savvy as their kids or friends. I’m trying to help explain what’s happening because if I don’t…nobody else will!


If you’re anything like your neighbour…you probably use Facebook on your phone WAY more than you use it on a computer. You’ve been sending messages from the Facebook app and it probably always asks you if you want to install the Facebook Messenger App.

It’s always been OPTIONAL but coming soon to your Facebook experience….it won’t be an option…it will be mandatory if you care to send messages from your phone.
No big deal one might think…but the part that the average Facebook User doesn't realize is the permissions you must give to Facebook in order to use the Facebook Messenger App. Here is a short list of the most disturbing permissions it requires and a quick explanation of what it means to you and your privacy.

Change the state of network connectivity – This means that Facebook can change or alter your connection to the Internet or cell service. You’re basically giving Facebook the ability to turn features on your phone on and off for it’s own reasons without telling you.

Call phone numbers and send SMS messages – This means that if Facebook wants to…it can send text messages to your contacts on your behalf. Do you see the trouble in this? Who is Facebook to be able to access and send messages on your phone? You’re basically giving a stranger your phone and telling them to do what they want when they want!

Record audio, and take pictures and videos, at any time – Read that line again….RECORD audio…TAKE pictures….AT ANY TIME!! That means that the folks at Facebook can see through your lens on your phone whenever they want..they can listen to what you’re saying via your microphone if they choose to!!

Read your phone’s call log, including info about incoming and outgoing calls – Who have you been calling? How long did you talk to them? Now Facebook will know all of this because you’ve downloaded the new Facebook messenger app.

Read your contact data, including who you call and email and how often – Another clear violation of your privacy. Now Facebook will be able to read e-mails you’ve sent and take information from them to use for their own gain. Whether it’s for “personalized advertisements” or if it’s for “research purposes” ….whatever the reason..they’re accessing your private encounters.

Read personal profile information stored on your device – This means that if you have addresses, personal info, pictures or anything else that’s near and dear to your personal life…they can read it.

Get a list of accounts known by the phone, or other apps you use – Facebook will now have a tally of all the apps you use, how often you use them and what information you keep or exchange on those apps.

Hopefully, you take this as serious as I do…after reading more about it and studying the permissions I have now deleted the app from my phone and don’t intend to use it ever again. I still have my Facebook app but I just won’t use the messaging feature unless I’m at a computer. Even then, I might not use messaging anymore.

With these kinds of privacy invasions I think Facebook is pushing the limits to what people will let them get away with. I remember when the Internet first began it’s march toward socializing dominance when AOL would send us CD’s for free trials every week. On AOL, we made screen names that somewhat hid our identities and protected us against the unseen dangers online.
Now, it seems that we’ve forgotten about that desire to protect our identity and we just lay down and let them invade our privacy.
There may be no turning back at this point because many people won’t read this or investigate the permissions of Facebook’s new mandatory app but at least I can say I tried to help us put up a fight. Pass this along to your friends and at least try to let them know what they’re getting into.

Source:Facebook’s New Mandatory Messenger App Raises Concerns « The New Bull @ 100.3
 
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People actually put that sort of stuff on Facebook? KNOWING that it would be abused? Are they mad?

Rule One - Nothing goes on-line that you would not want the whole world to see.

Why do think that I hold down a job as a ranger on Tristan da Cunha Island and live in Acapulco?

Jeez!
 
I've uninstalled mine now lol
 
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you do know it all part of the nsa spying network so if there any complaints you let them do it by agreeing to there terms
 
never used it never will

online these days can be a nightmare lol
 
there are a ton of apps that have these privileges these days including just about everything from google
 
google is your worst nightmare
 
Most of those permissions are the standard type for all social media apps,it needs those permissions so YOU can post messages/send pm's /post pictures etc etc ,

That's not to say I agree with them,but it's not a big deal in the great scheme of things :)
 
People actually put that sort of stuff on Facebook? KNOWING that it would be abused? Are they mad?

Rule One - Nothing goes on-line that you would not want the whole world to see.

Why do think that I hold down a job as a ranger on Tristan da Cunha Island and live in Acapulco?

Jeez!

I have to agree too many people post too much of their private life on Facebook i don't share nowt of my personal life on Facebook just share interesting articles and keep upto date on latest news and views and anything im interested in for later reading.I don't get some people on Facebook who have to post every bit of crap they are doing and then moan later when someone knows too much i have one friend on Facebook who is like that.
 
Facebook Messenger permissions: Not as scary as the stories might have you believe

Let's look at Facebook messenger's permissions

you're kind of left to your own devices to decide whether the permissions an app is declaring are scary, or necessary. (Though we'd argue that a company like Facebook probably couldn't get away with sneaking something through for very long, but that's not really the point of this exercise.)

So, let's go through them, one by one, as they're currently listed.

Phone calls

Directly call phone numbers. This one's followed by a yellow "This may cost you money" warning, and a little image of coins, again indicating that it could, potentially, cost you money.
Read phone status and identity.
Why these permissions: Because Facebook messenger can call people. Or, rather, it can initiate a call. If someone has given Facebook their phone number, you'll be able to call them through this app. At the same time, the app has the ability to see what your phone number is.

Texting

Edit your text messages (SMS or MMS)
Read your text messages (SMS or MMS)
Receive text messages (MMS)
Receive text messages (SMS)
Send SMS messages (This may cost you money)
Why these permissions: Facebook Messenger uses an SMS to confirm your phone number when you decide to give it to Facebook. Note how that works in conjunction with the "read phone identity" permission above. Facebook Messenger also allows you to send a text message or MMS to someone who isn't yet on Messenger. (You have to give it access to your contacts, though, for that to work.)

Camera

Take pictures and videos
Why this permission: Facebook Messenger can use the camera to ... wait for it ... take a picture or shoot video.

Microphone

Record audio
Why this permission: Facebook Messenger can use your microphone to ... wait for it ... record a message to send to a friend. Or make phone calls.

Location

Approximate location (network-based)
Precise location (GPS and network-based)
Why these permissions: Because Facebook Messenger, just just about every other social network, uses location for all sorts of things. And there's more than one way to get location on a device.

Contacts

Read call log
Read your contacts
Read your own contact card
Why these permissions: Facebook Messenger is a messenger app, and it has the ability to sync up with your phone contacts. (That's a separate process altogether, but it still has to declare the permission up front if it's going to do any of it from your phone.)

SD card

Modify or delete the contents of your SD card
Read the contents of your SD card
Why these permissions: Facebook's addressed this one directly already regarding its Facebook proper app, but it's also a pretty standard permission for any app that needs to cache data somewhere. In this case, think your friends' contact pictures. Instead of downloading them every time you use the app, which is slow and costs data, it stores them. (And that's just one example.) And "SD card" is a misnomer (and another example of how permissions can be clunky), because it's not actually talking about a physical SD card.

Accounts

Find accounts on the device
Read Google service configuration
Why these permissions: Facebook Messenger is a Facebook app. And you know how you're able to use your Facebook account to sign into other things. (Including our Mobile Nations sites, actually.) And if you look in the main accounts settings on your device, you'll see the Facebook service listed here. Thus, the permission.

Network

Change network connectivity
Download files without notification
Full network access
Receive data from Internet
View network connections
View Wifi connections
Why these permissions: This sort of thing often sounds far more scary than it should. First, the obvious: Facebook Messenger needs a data connection. Full stop. That explains most of that there. As for downloading files without notification, ever wonder how Facebook apps sometimes look different even though you didn't actually update the app? There you go. (Not saying we're a fan of that one, by the way. We'd prefer transparency.)

Other permissions

Run at startup: Facebook Messenger is a messaging app. In order to be effective, it needs to be open. So it sets itself to run at startup in the background.
Draw over other apps: Two words: Chat Heads.
Control vibration/prevent phone from sleeping: Pretty standard for notifications in an app like this.
Read sync settings: Lets the app see if background syncing is on.
Install shortcuts: Again, Chat Heads and your home screen.

Full story on android central
 
so basically they want unfettered access to everything!!, i am still amazed this company is still used by the majority - i dumped my account when they first started to change your privacy settings when they felt like it.
Thats a pretty scarey list and am glad its completely disabled and removed on all my droid devices.
Ive also set up a black list a long while ago on my router, any traffic to facebook.com is blocked at my router.
 
so basically they want unfettered access to everything!!, i am still amazed this company is still used by the majority - i dumped my account when they first started to change your privacy settings when they felt like it.
Thats a pretty scarey list and am glad its completely disabled and removed on all my droid devices.
Ive also set up a black list a long while ago on my router, any traffic to facebook.com is blocked at my router.

You give, they'll take.
 
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