Facebook Is Changing the Way It Stores Call, Text History 55
Facebook issued a blog post today detailing the changes it has made to how it manages users' data. Among the new changes is a tweak to how Facebook collects and stores call and text history. Engadget reports: For those using Messenger or Facebook Lite on Android, an opt-in feature compiles users' call and text history, which the company says is used to help it surface the contacts you talk to most frequently. In its blog post today, Facebook said that it has reviewed the feature and can confirm that it doesn't actually collect the content of any messages. Additionally, going forward, it will delete logs older than a year and only the data required for the feature's functionality will be collected, meaning no extra data, such as call times, will be stored. The collection of such data became an issue last month, when software developer Dylan McKay discovered the logs after downloading a copy of his account data. Facebook initially said that it was an opt-in feature. It also said that the call and text history data were never sold. You can see how to turn off this feature here for Messenger and here for Facebook Lite.
If Zuckie says so ... (Score:5, Funny)
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I don't really get it. This has never been an issue for me. I saw the permissions it was requesting and denied them. Did 99.999999% rest of the world just blindly allow it? Why?
Re:If Zuckie says so ... (Score:4, Insightful)
More importantly, it's very likely that even if you deny Facebook the right to do something it wants to do, it'll do it anyway. There's no way to tell, why wouldn't they?
The permissions thing is just a dog-and-pony show...
Re:If Zuckie says so ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Okay. Say they get sued and they lose the class action (fat chance). How can you tell they'll actually delete the data?
Facebook's infrastructure is vast. Technically, it'd take experts months to ensure they actually comply with the judge's order - and that's assuming FB doesn't actively try to deceive them. What would most likely happen is, FB would simply promise to comply in writing, and we all know what FB's promises are worth...
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Regulation: with noncompliance penalties, Unilateral halt of service until compliance (no Facebook for anyone until the order is observed), and asset forfeiture for non compliance. : You probably can't stop the information from being on the Internet, but its time to start demonetizing user abuse. Or in this case, literally non user abuse.
The easiest way to do that is to harness the greed and arrogance of legislators: "If they won't maybe we will find someone who will : after we shut them down..."
Call it a p
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I don't really get it. This has never been an issue for me. I saw the permissions it was requesting and denied them. Did 99.999999% rest of the world just blindly allow it? Why?
You just answered your own question. Because the default response is if an app asks for a permission you grant it. Perhaps you the 0.000001% chose not to grant the permission. But the power of the default speaks.
It's also why new Facebook users are set up with ridiculously open security settings - because Facebook knows the power of the default. It's also why Facebook and other social media sites make it a pain in the ass to change the settings. They want to hide the privacy settings in the UI where you c
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Totally checks out Mr. Dude.
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growl, thanks slashdot! you ate text inside of lt / gt symbols.
insert "jennifer_lawrence_meme.gif" =/
That should tell you something (Score:3)
I mean, they had to do an honest-to-goodness review before they could determine that they weren't collecting the content of these phone and text conversations - which weren't part of Facebook at all, I might add.
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I mean, they had to do an honest-to-goodness review
No they didn't. They had to do an honest-to-goodness fire-hosing of the flaming ignorant masses who opted to let the Facebook app become their phone and messaging system and then freaked out that it had the functionality of a phone and messaging system.
In other news Facebook will now be the only app on my phone capable as acting a full phone dialler which doesn't also record the call times.
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Not to mention, where in this explanation does it make sense that "sorting your contacts" requires a server?
Call and Text History: Call and text history is part of an opt-in feature for people using Messenger or Facebook Lite on Android. This means we can surface the people you most frequently connect with at the top of your contact list. We’ve reviewed this feature to confirm that Facebook does not collect the content of messages — and will delete all logs older than one year. In the future, the client will only upload to our servers the information needed to offer this feature — not broader data such as the time of calls.
Also, who uses "surface" in this way? What a wanker.
Re:Yeah, sure. (Score:5, Interesting)
Cults often use private languages. Most people believe they aren't bad, so they use language to hide from what they're doing...'surface', 'expropriate' etc etc.
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Opt In? (Score:2)
What I love is how they call what is essentially an opt-out feature opt-in.
No Facebook. I did not want to "opt in" to that at all.
How to verify that FB account actually deleted? (Score:3)
I am tired of having to "worry" about FaceBook and how it handles data. Can someone here tell me how to ascertain whether an account and associated data no longer exist?
FB is of no use in this regard as they keep bugging fellas who "delete or deactivate" their accounts.
Re:How to verify that FB account actually deleted? (Score:5, Interesting)
Me, I'm tired of having to worry about how any of my data is mishandled by Facebook - or Google, or CloudFlare, or Apple, or Microsoft, or any other big data player for that matter - when I explicitely and quite deliberately refuse to use any their "services".
It requires real focus and total dedication to limit the amount of shit these companies know about me to an absolute minimum when I simply want to go on the internet - nevermind denying them the right to know anything at all, which is impossible. That's what's tiring in today's surveillance capitalist society.
It's becoming so problematic that I'm increasingly turning into poisoning the well instead of trying to dry it up - i.e. supply big data with as much bullshit information as possible, since they want data that bad...
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Search for 'Lithium-Deuteride for sale'. What could go wrong?
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http://makeinternetnoise.com/i... [makeinternetnoise.com]
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Too little, too late. (Score:3)
FB says data on most of 2B users vulnerable... (Score:3)
How it stored call and text history? (Score:1)
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So an ad company can get its ads to the right person in near real time.
The NSA.
Let's translate this... (Score:1)
"Here at Facebook we are very concerned with the amount of negative publicity we have received lately concerning our business and the impact it is having on our revenue generation scheme. Going forward, we will redouble our efforts to ensure that end users are no longer able to discern the amount of data that we collect on them routinely, as an ongoing operation, to ensure that our business model continues with as high a profitability as possible."
Is anyone stupid enough to believe this? (Score:1)
If you had a Facebook account you're an idiot. If you still have a Facebook account you're an even bigger idiot. If you let your family run Facebook accounts you're an idiot because although they don't know any better you do.
i dont care what facebook says or does (Score:2)
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The data is still flowing to the ads and nothing is lost.
Re:i dont care what facebook says or does (Score:4, Insightful)
Are you sure you have done a thorough enough job? Have you looked at any particular file hosted on Facebook? Do they all use *.facebook.com? If you have realized Facebook owns and uses other domains, are you sure you blocked them all?
If they were serious... (Score:5, Insightful)
If Facebook were serious, they would stop storing this data at all. Data not collected cannot be compromised.
Of course, that goes against their business plan. So, instead, they make a lot of noise about a couple of purely cosmetic changes, and go on selling all your data to anyone who wants it.
Cambridge Analytics? That wasn't an accident or an oversight. That was business as usual, Facebook making money. They are only annoyed that they got caught.
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Speaking of cosmetic changes...I know someone that provides laser services (hair removal, tattoo removal, etc), and she is constantly on her phone with these client/patients. Some of these procedures fall under HIPA regulations. Would Facebook be running afoul of HIPA regulations by scraping and storing such data?
That's like the Pope saying (Score:2)
Facebook apps on your phone is utter folly (Score:2)
It may be worth it to keep Facebook around to stay in touch with more distant contacts easily and to be a part of how much of the world works these days with people organizing and planning things - but even so we know it collects insane amounts of data from every nook and cranny it can leach from. Maybe some of us can live with that while accessed from a desktop sitting in a static location, without mics or cameras hooked up for it to have access to.
But on your cell phone? Do that an you are basically sur
how to hack (Score:1)