- A Facebook user was startled to find that the social network had been keeping records of his phone calls and texts. A report from Ars Technica corroborated his findings.
- In response, Facebook says that it's an opt-in feature on Messenger for Android, as well as the low-data Facebook Lite — and that it's about making the social network better.
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People are freaking out that Facebook's Android apps collect call and text data — but Facebook says it got permission
Facebook's Android apps have been keeping calling and texting data — but the company, which just faced the Cambridge Analytica scandal, says it had permission.
Over the weekend, one Dylan McKay downloaded the archive of all his Facebook data — and found that the social network had been keeping extensive records of the calls and texts he had made from his Android phone.
A report from Ars Technica corroborated McKay's findings not long after: under certain circumstances, Facebook's Android apps will keep logs showing the names of the people you called and texted, how long the conversation lasted, and the other party's phone number.
McKay's original Twitter post has almost 40,000 retweets at the time of writing. Privacy fears around Facebook are at an all-time high following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, where 50 million users had their data used improperly by a political research firm.
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In response to reports over the weekend, Facebook published a blog entry giving its side of the story.
First, Facebook says, it didn't do anything without permission. It says that keeping logs of call and text data is an opt-in feature on two of its Android apps: You get prompted to share that data upon installing Facebook Messenger, and the low-data Facebook Lite. Keeping those records "
it's not crazy to ask for access to your contacts: "
According to the report, all of the call and text records end in October 2017 — which suggests, but does not prove, that the main Facebook app for Android was taking advantage of that method to get the data.
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Still, Facebook maintains that this has always been an opt-in feature, and that users would have been prompted.
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