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Facebook tracks all calls and messages on Android

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1–10 of 41 posts

Re: Facebook tracks all calls and messages on Android

#3
post #2

He is using Android 5.1... that was before the whole permission system no? Besides other people don't seem to be able to reproduce it.

Android Apps targeting Android 6.0+ need to handle grant/revocation of permissions at runtime. Previous versions of Android would simply ask for the same permissions upfront when a user installed an app.

Re: Facebook tracks all calls and messages on Android

#5
post #4

isn't this the expected behavior for apps that you give the sms / voice call / contacts permissions to? i would be surprised if any such app did not display my call/sms history and autocomplete contacts.

I think it would be expected for local access, on the device where the data was originally stored. It is wholly unacceptable for them to upload that data. If someone has my name and phone number and installs Facebook, they have just given Facebook all of my personal information.

Re: Facebook tracks all calls and messages on Android

#8
post #2

He is using Android 5.1... that was before the whole permission system no? Besides other people don't seem to be able to reproduce it.

Permissions existed, absolutely.

They were just "Accepted when installed" type permissions rather than "Hey, would you kindly grant me access to all of your data" type permissions.

Re: Facebook tracks all calls and messages on Android

#9
post #2

He is using Android 5.1... that was before the whole permission system no? Besides other people don't seem to be able to reproduce it.

Android Apps targeting Android 6.0+ need to handle grant/revocation of permissions at runtime. Previous versions of Android would simply ask for the same permissions upfront when a user installed an app.

Yes but it's still possible to target a lower version of Android and request all the permissions up front which must users would agree to

Re: Facebook tracks all calls and messages on Android

#10
post #6
post #2

He is using Android 5.1... that was before the whole permission system no? Besides other people don't seem to be able to reproduce it.

Does that make it right for Facebook to gather this data? It seems entirely unnecessary.

If I'm understanding the other comments in the thread then the behavior is based on how Android worked in that older version... e.g.

if (on) { /* execute code for said feature */ }

Which implies: " In the version of Android mentioned the on flag is on when you install. It was a feature of that version of Android to turn it on... how can FB know you didn't want it on?"

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