Facebook collects data about calls and SMS of Android users

The scandal with Facebook is gaining momentum, and users are finding more troubling things related to personal information.

What is known

The Twitter user said that he found the history of calls and SMS in downloaded files of the Android-application Facebook.

Journalists Ars Technica found that Facebook requests data about the history of calls and SMS to improve the algorithm of recommendations of friends. The social network collects information from users who have installed Messenger as a standard messaging application. Recently, Facebook has made data collection optional. At the first start the user is offered to allow or prohibit the collection of information about phone calls and SMS.

It is alarming that Facebook collected information for years, until permission to access data on Android was less stringent. Google changed the access policy, but the developers used a loophole. Such vulnerability was not noticed in the application for iOS. Most programs simply do not have access to the history of calls or messages, and Facebook does not record this data on the iPhone.

Reply Facebook

Facebook reacted to the statements. The company believes that this is normal for applications that use information about contacts for "social networks".

"An important part of applications and services that help you keep in touch is simplifying the search for people you want to contact. When you first enter the messaging service or social application, it usually downloads information about your contacts, "says a Facebook representative.

Facebook, still, did not answer a couple of questions. First, since when does the social network collect such information. Secondly, users need to clearly understand what data they disclose by authorizing the collection.