So you have a smart phone, so you probably have Facebook and messenger installed, so you think ah but that's ok I don't use Facebook or messenger! Did you know messenger can access (by installing or having on your phone you give them permission) all of the features of your phone with out you knowing? That's cameras, microphone, text messages, contacts, GPS and any other features of YOUR phone, if you open the apps tab and look at permissions for messenger you will see all those options are enable, you can NOT turn them off! I've removed mine, I have nothing to hide but I don't want some twat reading my personal messages. so much for data protection..
What people may not know is the relationship with Android and FB means it's installed from new, I.e you buy a phone and it will be pre installed, along with permission for them to spy on you.
The standard Facebook Ap is very intrusive also but there doesn't seem much scope for restricting it's permissions on my Galaxy S5?
Don't think you can restrict it just view what it has access to. I'm no FB expert but from what I gather they have or are shutting down the current or old messaging app that was embedded into FB and firing out out through messenger. Think thats why they are now two apps kind of thing. Maybe a deal was done over messenger?
Relationship is between Facebook and the Mobile Companies/Phone companies and not Android. I have a Google Nexus 5 and it doesn't have Facebook on it. I read about the new permissions that Facebook Messenger wanted, and their justifications for them with total amazement. "We need to have access to your microphone/camera so we can let people know what you are listening to/watching when you send a message" I mean FFS it's a message application, if I wanted to tell people I was watching Debbie Does Dallas then I would tell them. I left FB last year after the info suck creep went beyond scary for me. I am on it as my pet bearded dragon, but mainly for if the kids/wife want to share stuff with me, but TBH I doubt I log on more than once or twice a month. There was a good article the other day about how advertisers are using FB to track people's purchases etc across multiple devices i.e. you browse items on your phone, and buy from your laptop. Companies like Facebook and Google are advertising companies, they used to want to sell ad space to advertisers, now they sell access to data on their users, and they have a LOT of data on people. My mantra these days is "If you don't pay for the product, you are the product." To end my rant I would say that if you use "free" wifi you should watch this item that was recently on BBC Click - BBC World News - Click, 26/07/2014 GMT, What price for free wi-fi?
I thought the access was more to do with enabling you to attach pics from your gallery or music etc and that almost all android apps have the same generic blanket access to most of your phone when installing. I don't think the apps themselves can monitor your phone and data on them just what you send using the apps. More interesting.... don't ever sell on an android phone as it was proven recently that even with a full factory reset a simple bit of software bought online can access all previous users data from the phones unless physically written over after deleting. Other than the iphone from 3G model onwards that has encryption built in as standard
Yes, there's been a warning popping up over the last month that it's going to happen and that you need to download messenger, then, one day the ability to message was gone and it was messenger or nothing, so I did the deed. However, all that was on my iPad. On my phone, I didn't download the App. All of a sudden it was there. Cue paranoia, until I realised it's the bloody cloud, caring sharing.......monitoring, harvesting, reporting back.... To think I felt sorry for Michael Cera in that film too... On another note. When I installed Google Earth on my new phone, it asked me for access to my contacts so that, and I quote "I can fly straight to their locations when I run the software..." They're my contacts, arseholes. I already know where they fecking live! And the last people I want to share that with is frigging Google! Quite frankly, I would rather share that information with the NSA. ...But, of course, they already know it...
The irony is that people complain about the NSA getting the same data that they willingly give up to private companies for free. If you have an Android phone then you can look at putting CyanogenMod on your phone if you want to get rid of all the bloatware that manufacturers and Operators foist onto phones theses days. Not sure if jailbreaking an iPhone etc would do the same for them. Also you can enable encryption on an Android phone, it's under SETTINGS >> SECURITY on Android 4.4.4.
Makes me glad I am a bit old fashioned. I can make and receive calls, take a picture and send and receive a text. That is all I want and require. When I recently upgraded my phone they told me that I had x amount of thingamejigs internet access included. They were surprised when I asked them to deactivate internet access. As I said to them, at my age, if I want to access the internet, I will sit in front of my computer at home. I have absolutely no desire to have 24/7 internet access via my phone. I got some strange looks, but it was a kid of about 19 who was trying to convince me that I really needed 24/7 access via my phone. Reading the comments here, makes me pleased that I stuck to my guns
I don't have messager or facebook app installed, I do however use facebook on the web explorer through my phone but I also what I need to turn off and on on my phone to make it safe, Don't panic so much mate, the internet s a useful feature of my phone, just make sure you have firewalls and anti virus and malware program installed
I run a firewall etc but it issue for me is that the messenger app has permissions and capability to use the apps how it likes, so can view your contacts list, notes made in the list, cookies info and so on, even turn on the mic and camera if they wanted! Shocking when you think about the whole thing, to think someone can view your front or rear camera with sound and get your IP and GPS location without you knowing!
Simple thing to do that I just have is to not have the messaging app just FB. And as above if someone messages me I will reply via my Desktop/lappy sod them feckings behind FB
If you have Android 4.3 or early 4.4 you could try this app to restrict apps https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ovidos.android.permissionmanager
