Facebook might have been busy dealing with the crisis in the aftermath of the Cambridge Analytica data breach scandal that it has found itself drawn into another controversy. The social networking giant this time is accused of having recorded every call and text details of the user over the past few years.
The discovery was made by New Zealander Dylan McKay who had downloaded all data that Facebook has collected from his device. Interestingly, Facebook itself allows users to download all that the company has collected for a user from their website.
This, however, is applicable to only Android users with iOS remaining unaffected. Further, Facebook getting access to the user’s call and text records can be attributed to a loophole of the Android platform itself than Facebook’s own endeavor. But then, Facebook is always curious for such stuff and has sought the user’s specific consent for such details.
Google, on its part, has already dealt with the issue with Android Jelly Bean. That was when Android API version 4.0 was introduced, in October 2017 to be specific. However, all calls and text messages sent and received before that time has already been shared with Facebook, and there is nothing that can be done now.
Facebook said it requires access to the contact list to make new friend suggestions. However, it never revealed what use it has with the call or text details likes the duration of a call, date and time when the call was made and the person the user called.
The social media giant meanwhile has responded to the new controversy claiming it behaves responsibly with all data it has ever collected of any user around the world. It also chose to assure users of the security of the data it has collected and said it never sells or even reveals the data to any third-party sources.
The company also stated users can always turn off the setting anytime they want. Further, turning off the feature will delete all of the user’s data. It also said the actual content of the call or text messages have never been collected.
Facebook meanwhile is having a tough time convincing its users of privacy of the highest order. Clearly, not everyone is impressed of its efforts as is evident with the way many celebrities have chosen to delete their Facebook records. Prominent among those is Tesla CEO Elon Musk who went on to delete SpaceX and Tesla’s Facebook accounts.
However, while it might seem to delete a Facebook account is the most trending thing in the tech world right now, the fact is, this might not be the end of days for the social media giant just yet. Rather, it could be a reorganization of sorts for the company, and it seems it would re-invent itself in a new way paying greater heed to user’s privacy. After all, people do need a way to communicate and collaborate with others, and Facebook provides the right platform at the moment.
Maybe there will be a new Facebook alternative launched as well.
