Facebook can now read your texts • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook can now read your texts

#181

Post by SwellJoe » Tue, Jan 28, 2014, 5:17 PM UTC

maxr0 wrote: post #180

SwellJoe wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which caused me to freak out when it first happened. I was furious. I had to stop everything I was doing immediately in order to figure out how to disable it. I can't possibly state emphatically enough how user-hostile that feature is. It is so disruptive to my thought process...it's nearly as bad as that awful focus-stealing thing that Windows does.

I can understand it might have been unnerving but on the other hand the feature was documented in the change log and in the list of new permissions the app required (in the version chat heads were introduced). Personally I find chat heads convenient and useful

"Useful" for what purpose?

Re: Facebook can now read your texts

#182

Post by shmerl » Tue, Jan 28, 2014, 5:21 PM UTC

jonobird1 wrote: post #7

Does anyone know what they are using this feature for exactly?

It's better to ask what they (or anyone else) can use it for. And Facebook is the treasure mine for all kind of NSA-types.

Re: Facebook can now read your texts

#183

Post by topbanana » Tue, Jan 28, 2014, 5:22 PM UTC

bricestacey wrote: post #166

chrsstrm wrote: post #33

Not just Facebook. There are many apps that are overstepping in terms of permissions. I turned off auto-update long ago and removed many offenders, but it seems every app these days is now requesting as many privileges as they can get away with. The general population of users aren't reading the list of new permissions on updates and no one is making these co's explain themselves as to why they need listed permission…

Apps do not autoupdate from the Play store if there are new permissions. You have to manually update them. I am not sure if this is a recent change or not as I started using Android with the Nexus 5.

It's always done that

Re: Facebook can now read your texts

#184

Post by Nicholas_C » Tue, Jan 28, 2014, 5:24 PM UTC

gulbrandr wrote: post #101

urza wrote: post #90

I have about 10 apps that I refuse to update, because they want some new permissions that I'm not willing to grant them. It is sometimes hard to find apps that respect your privacy and don't request absurd permissions.

You can control the permissions of each apps with AppOps [1] [1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=fr.slvn.appops

What's New: v 1.4 - No more support for 4.4.2. I cannot do anything about it so far.

Re: Facebook can now read your texts

#185

Post by lucb1e » Tue, Jan 28, 2014, 5:32 PM UTC

The only astounding thing is that people seem surprised.

Also it's a moot point regardless: Facebook can read all my messages to friends on Facebook already, and all their messages to their friends, and everything they publicly and privately share, including photos and videos, and they have access to most e-mail accounts around the globe. My texts are a relatively small deal in comparison.

Re: Facebook can now read your texts

#186

Post by wavesounds » Tue, Jan 28, 2014, 5:41 PM UTC

blueskin_ wrote: post #93

annnnd wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds excellent, I can't believe I never tried it yet! Of course, this should be part of core Android, but I guess there is no hope for that (given that Google makes its dough on advertising).

It used to be, called App Ops. It was in for (one?) point release before google promptly withdrew it again after realising that giving people tools to protect their privacy goes against their mission.

If that we're true why don't they remove the AdBlock extension from he Chrome store? What good are targeted Ads if those Ads are blocked anyway?

Re: Facebook can now read your texts

#187

Post by kissickas » Tue, Jan 28, 2014, 5:42 PM UTC

reddit_clone wrote: post #174

kissickas wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cool app, thanks. Is there a place where I can see an explanation for all of these permissions? I have no idea what the difference between "location" and "monitor location" is, for example.

Total guess based on their names: Location probably refers to retrieving the location of the device using an API. Monitoring Location likely means continuously getting notification about device location as you are moving around.

That's what would make intuitive sense, but it also makes intuitive sense that those would be one and the same, given the topic of the article we're commenting on, so I'm still not sure about it.

Re: Facebook can now read your texts

#188

Post by JohnTHaller » Tue, Jan 28, 2014, 5:45 PM UTC

victorhooi wrote: post #59

JohnTHaller wrote: post #39

Don't forget that Google Hangouts now has access to all your texts, too, now.

Err, yes, but on any modern version of Android, Google Hangouts is the SMS app - so I thing that's a bit of a red herring, and completely unrelated.

Only on the latest Android if you buy it that way on very specific phones. For everyone else (read: MOST Android users) an upgrade happened, often from Google Talk, and wound up with a new app with full SMS control without the user knowing.

Re: Facebook can now read your texts

#189

Post by ToastyMallows » Tue, Jan 28, 2014, 5:59 PM UTC

zrgiu_ wrote: post #147

Like others have said, on Android you can use App Ops, and if you're on 4.4.2, App Ops X ( https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.colortiger... disclaimer: I developed it). It still sucks that you're on an "open" platform but you still have to root/jailbreak your phone to keep your privacy.

Just installed. I hope this is easier to use than XPrivacy. Thanks!

Re: Facebook can now read your texts

#190

Post by npizzolato » Tue, Jan 28, 2014, 6:20 PM UTC

SwellJoe wrote: post #181

maxr0 wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can understand it might have been unnerving but on the other hand the feature was documented in the change log and in the list of new permissions the app required (in the version chat heads were introduced). Personally I find chat heads convenient and useful

"Useful" for what purpose?

It makes it easier for me to carry on conversations while also doing other things on my phone. If I'm reading something, and someone responds to a message, I can quickly pop open the chat window and respond, then close it and go back to what I was doing. I find that more convenient than going back to the home screen and launching an app from there or the (rather slow) app switching process.

Yes, sometimes it does get in the way of what I'm doing, and in those cases I just swipe the chat head down to the bottom of the screen and it goes away. And considering turning it off is one of the options in the first page of the settings, I'm not really understanding why it would make you furious or think this is user-hostile. Overall it's a pretty unimportant change that is easy to disable if you don't like it.