Is there any recourse short of "don't use the app" that regular users have against this sort of thing? Is there no meaningful way to push back against Facebook for demanding this permission?
OpenPDroid.
Facebook can now read your texts
61–70 of 226 posts
Re: Facebook can now read your texts
#62Is there any recourse short of "don't use the app" that regular users have against this sort of thing? Is there no meaningful way to push back against Facebook for demanding this permission?
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.
This feature is nowadays called Privacy Guard and it works so well that I have it on by default for all apps. With the exception of apps that actually need to read my contacts (say WhatsApp), I have not had to disable it for any applications and haven't seen any complications. For example Facebook and Twitter apps, which require a whole rainbow of permissions, function just the way they used to. I've never made a lot of use of their location dependent features though and would expect those to suffer from being deprived of GPS data.
Re: Facebook can now read your texts
#63Is there any recourse short of "don't use the app" that regular users have against this sort of thing? Is there no meaningful way to push back against Facebook for demanding this permission?
If you have a Samsung Android phone, there's a Permissions Manager that allows you to firewall what apps can and can't do.
Same as Cyanogenmod without having to root your phone.
Re: Facebook can now read your texts
#64This sucks because even if you don't have the application, you might be texting someone who does... facebook can collect that data too and build profiles of people who don't even have the app or even use facebook.
Re: Facebook can now read your texts
#65The title of this thread should be modified with the addition of: "if you use an Android phone."
"...and update to the latest version of the Facebook app."
Re: Facebook can now read your texts
#66Hey, where is the "Reject" button?
Re: Facebook can now read your texts
#67The 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.
App Ops was removed in 4.4.2. It had been accidentally added to 4.3: http://www.engadget.com/2013/12/13/google-removes-apps-ops-p...
App Ops was not an ideal solution anyway. A specific permission couldn't be disabled until after the app used the permission at least once. So the Facebook app could read your SMS when launched, and only then you would be able to disable the permission.
Re: Facebook can now read your texts
#68I don't mind. The Facebook chat has already replaced any texting I'm doing so the only new stuff they will get access to are postal delivery notifications.
Re: Facebook can now read your texts
#69Is there any recourse short of "don't use the app" that regular users have against this sort of thing? Is there no meaningful way to push back against Facebook for demanding this permission?
Even if the app would tap into their conversations, bank account and demanded your social security number, people would still use it. "Normal" people don't understand the concept of privacy when it comes to technology like this.
Re: Facebook can now read your texts
#70The main reason I rooted my Android phone is to run AppOps 4.3/4.4. I can revoke permissions from apps, just like the one in the linked article.
This should be a standard part of Android, in my opinion.
The app, for those curious (I have no affiliation with it):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.colortiger...
My favorite permissions to revoke are: Wake lock, Location, Read contacts. As a result, I get almost 2 days on a full charge on my Nexus 5.