Nowadays almost everyone uses Facebook. You can use it to like photos, upload videos and to chat with people around the world. Now it isn’t possible to chat on you mobile phone through the normal Facebook app anymore. You need to download the Facebook Messenger app to chat with your friends. It turns out, that this is not without any danger.
That Facebook doesn’t care about the privacy of their users is nothing new. The social medium was often seen in the news about their dubious privacy policy, but now Facebook goes a step further with the new Facebook Messenger app. Some examples:
- The app can edit, receive and read your text messages.
- The app can read your own contacts.
- The app can make phone calls without your permission.
- The app can record sound from the microphone.
- The app can take photos and videos with the camera.
- The app can access your call history, including data about incoming and outgoing calls.
It is clear that if you use this app, you do not have any privacy anymore. Facebook comes up with a reaction, saying that they ask for similar permissions that many other messaging systems ask for. They are also saying that there is confusion about the permission requests because Android uses a different language to describe them.
That’s easy to say, but it is still questionable. Many people install the app without looking at the permissions and can now be overheard by Facebook.
The question is, will you continue to use the Facebook Messenger app? I believe Facebook is going too far this time. I removed the app right away.
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