Facebook can now read your texts • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook can now read your texts

#21

Post by billyjobob » Tue, Jan 28, 2014, 4:51 AM UTC

At this point, if you care about your privacy, why would you even still have a Facebook account?

I used to think I could be 'safe', that my advanced knowledge of privacy settings and optimised usage patterns could somehow shield me from the fundamental nature of these data monger corporations. But the truth is concepts like cloud and social networking are fundamentally toxic to privacy and freedom.

I'm now pretty close to the day I delete my Google account, and that provides far more useful functionality than Facebook.

Re: Facebook can now read your texts

#22

Post by jmreid » Tue, Jan 28, 2014, 4:55 AM UTC

beedogs wrote: post #19

zobzu wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

use cyanogenmod + privacy mode, you can disable what the app can do. for example, you can disable that. app still works, it just gets an empty sms list.

Sure would be nice if someone would jailbreak the iPhone, so we could have these sorts of options in our little walled-gardens too.

Can't you already disable access to Contact, Calendar, Reminders, location, etc per app on the iPhone?

Re: Facebook can now read your texts

#23

Post by frozenjuice » Tue, Jan 28, 2014, 4:57 AM UTC

I remember noticing this on a lot more than just facebook. The Android permissions model seems to now be pointless as so many apps ask for pretty much all of the permissions.

Re: Facebook can now read your texts

#24

Post by maxr0 » Tue, Jan 28, 2014, 4:59 AM UTC

kevinmchugh wrote: post #2

At this point I'm running at least 2 versions behind on the facebook app. I didn't install it last time it asked me to allow it to "Send emails to guests [of events] without host's knowledge" among other things. I see now that they also want to be able to connect and disconnect from WiFi. The Facebook app is probably the fastest way to find a list of all permissions in the Android system. "Draw over other apps", "Rea…

"draw over other apps" is to implement chat heads (see http://www.piwai.info/chatheads-basics/)

Re: Facebook can now read your texts

#25

Post by hamburglar » Tue, Jan 28, 2014, 5:00 AM UTC

kunjanshah wrote: post #16

The best way to prevent this in this app, and many other apps is to use "App Ops" in 4.4 or use CyanogenMod and enable privacy guard and then you can long press on the app and prevent the app from reading SMS and many other things while you are at it.

I wish Google would recognize that it would be beneficial to protect users from this kind of thing by providing a decent management UI that didn't require using CM. Of course, that goes against some of Google's own interests...

Re: Facebook can now read your texts

#26

Post by comex » Tue, Jan 28, 2014, 5:01 AM UTC

jmreid wrote: post #22

beedogs wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure would be nice if someone would jailbreak the iPhone, so we could have these sorts of options in our little walled-gardens too.

Can't you already disable access to Contact, Calendar, Reminders, location, etc per app on the iPhone?

Yes. And of course no app can read your text messages in the first place there.

Re: Facebook can now read your texts

#27

Post by ericcumbee » Tue, Jan 28, 2014, 5:02 AM UTC

rodrodrod wrote: post #18

This has been a thing for about a month and a bit now. A Facebook engineer posted the following on Reddit[0], explaining the rationale behind the SMS permission: > As for the READ_SMS permission, we require that so we can automatically intercept login approvals SMS messages for people that have turned 2-factor authentication for their accounts, or for phone confirmation messages when you add a phone number to your Fa…

am I crazy or could they not just include a uri to the facebook app with the 2 factor auth token included as an argument?

Re: Facebook can now read your texts

#28

Post by hoers » Tue, Jan 28, 2014, 5:03 AM UTC

jmreid wrote: post #22

beedogs wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure would be nice if someone would jailbreak the iPhone, so we could have these sorts of options in our little walled-gardens too.

Can't you already disable access to Contact, Calendar, Reminders, location, etc per app on the iPhone?

Yes you can.

Re: Facebook can now read your texts

#29

Post by mgulaid » Tue, Jan 28, 2014, 5:03 AM UTC

http://imgur.com/W09C9uO

Twitter is doing the same. It requests access to contacts list, SMS, phone call, phone Identity. I noticed the same and stopped updating. Andiord should enable users to control apps.

Re: Facebook can now read your texts

#30

Post by nl » Tue, Jan 28, 2014, 5:08 AM UTC

ericcumbee wrote: post #27

rodrodrod wrote: post #18

This has been a thing for about a month and a bit now. A Facebook engineer posted the following on Reddit[0], explaining the rationale behind the SMS permission: > As for the READ_SMS permission, we require that so we can automatically intercept login approvals SMS messages for people that have turned 2-factor authentication for their accounts, or for phone confirmation messages when you add a phone number to your Fa…

am I crazy or could they not just include a uri to the facebook app with the 2 factor auth token included as an argument?

Yes of course. But this allows them to automate that process.

Typical tradeoff: It's a nice feature, but adding it requires permissions that are off-putting to some users. I'm not sure there is a good solution here.