Facebook Was Tracking Your Text Message And Phone Call Data Now What – [Updated, March 25, 2018, 20:24 ET]: Facebook responds to this and other reports about collecting call and SMS data by confirming that Facebook secretly collected call data. I responded with a blog post denying it. The company also notes that it never sells data and that users control the data uploaded to Facebook. This “fact check” contradicts several details that Ars found in its analysis of downloads of the Facebook data and testimonials of users who provided the data. Details of Facebook’s reaction have been added to the bottom of the original article below.
Last week, a New Zealand man was poring over data collected by Facebook in the social networking site’s archives. Dylan McKay made a sad discovery while scanning the contact information Facebook had saved him. Facebook also had about two years worth of call metadata from his Android phone, including name, phone number, and length of calls made and received.
Facebook Was Tracking Your Text Message And Phone Call Data Now What
I downloaded my Facebook data as a ZIP file. Somehow I have all my call history with my partner’s mother pic.twitter.com/CIRUguf4vD — Dylan McKay (@dylanmckaynz) March 21, 2018
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This experience was shared by many other Facebook users who spoke with Ars, and we also shared our own. It turns out that my own Facebook data archive contained call log data from certain Android devices I used in 2015 and 2016. Along with metadata for SMS and MMS messages.
I called the office number to check my voicemail, and I called the office number to find the phone I found in the Facebook data archive. I had a total of 2 years of call data from the time I used the black phone as my primary phone.
To get a .zip file of your Facebook data, go to your Facebook Settings page and click the link circled in this screen shot.
In response to an email inquiry from Ars about this data collection, a Facebook spokesperson said: “The most important thing about apps and services that help you make connections is to make it easy to find the people you want to connect with. When you sign in to a messaging or social app on your phone for the first time, start by checking your phone contacts. Uploading the destination is widely practiced.
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The spokesperson pointed out that uploading contacts is optional and installing the application explicitly requests permission to access contacts. Users can also remove contact data from their profiles using tools accessible through a web browser.
Facebook uses phone contact data as part of its friend recommendation algorithm. The latest version of the Messenger application for Android and Facebook Lite devices also more explicitly requests users to access call logs and SMS logs on Android and Facebook Lite devices. But even if users didn’t give Messenger that permission, the way Android has handled permissions to access call logs in the past has made it easy for users to inadvertently give permission through Facebook’s mobile apps for years. It is possible that (See here for Facebook instructions on turning off continuous uploads of your contacts.)
If you granted permission to read your contacts during the installation of Facebook on Android several versions ago, especially before Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean), that permission gave Facebook access to your call and message logs by default. is also allowed. The permission structure has changed in version 16 of the Android API. Starting with Android 4.1, a single request from these applications now triggers two separate permission requests.
However, up until the “Marshmallow” version of Android, even though permissions were split, it was possible to present all permissions at once without the user having the option to decline them individually. Therefore, Facebook and other applications can still access call and SMS data in a single request by specifying the previous Android SDK version. Starting with Marshmallow, users can toggle these permissions on their own individually. However, around half of Android users around the world are still using older versions of the operating system due to carrier update restrictions and other issues.
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Apple iOS previously did not allow third-party apps to access call log data, either overtly or silently, making this type of data retrieval impossible.
Facebook offers a way for users to delete collected contact data from their accounts, but it’s unclear whether this only deletes contacts or call and SMS metadata as well. After erasing the contact data, the contacts and calls were still there in the archive that I downloaded the next day. This is probably because the archive was not regenerated for new requests. (Update: The cached archive was generated once and not refreshed on the second request. However, two days after the request to delete all contact data, the contacts are still listed by the contact management tool. )
As always, if you’re really concerned about privacy, you shouldn’t share address book or call log data with mobile applications. You might also want to explore the rest of the downloadable Facebook archives, which include all advertisers with whom Facebook has shared your contact information.
Facebook on Sunday responded to reports that it collected phone and SMS data without users’ knowledge in a “Fact Check” blog post. A Facebook spokesperson said in a response:
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Call and text history logging is part of an opt-in feature for users of Messenger or Facebook Lite on Android. This helps you find and stay connected with the people you care about, and provides a better experience across Facebook. You must explicitly consent to use this feature. If you don’t want to use this feature, you can always turn it off in Settings, or here if you’re a Facebook Lite user. Any previous call or text message history shared through that app will be deleted. Although we have received specific permissions from Android, uploading this information is always opt-in only.
This contradicts the experiences of several users who shared their data with Ars. Dylan McKay told Ars that he installed Messenger in 2015, but only granted the app the permissions in the Android manifest that it needed to install. He said he deleted and reinstalled the app multiple times over the next few years, but never explicitly gave the app permission to read his SMS or call history. Mackay’s call and SMS data is valid until July 2017.
In my case, I checked my Google Play data and found that Messenger was not installed on the Android device I was using. Facebook was installed on the Nexus tablet I was using, as well as my Blackphone 2 in 2015, and there was never an explicit message requesting access to my call or SMS data. However, I still have call data from late 2015 to late 2016, when I reinstalled the operating system on my Blackphone 2 and erased all applications.
Although the data collection was technically “opt-in,” in both cases opt-in was the default installation mode of the Facebook application and did not provide separate notification of data collection. Facebook never explicitly disclosed that the data was being collected, and it was only discovered as part of an investigation into the data associated with the account. The users we spoke to only made such reviews after recent revelations about Cambridge Analytica’s use of Facebook data.
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After being publicly shamed in 2016 for how it handled “opt-ins” for its SMS service, Facebook is forcing Messenger and Facebook Lite users to send SMS and calls to “help friends find each other.” We now explicitly ask for permission to access your data. That message didn’t say anything about keeping SMS and call data, but instead offered an “OK” button to approve “keeping all your SMS messages in one place.” was displayed.
Facebook says it stores your data securely and does not sell it to third parties. But the post doesn’t address why you need to save not only the number of phone calls and SMS message contacts, but also the dates, times, and lengths of calls for years.
Sean was previously IT and National Security Editor at Ars Technica and is currently a Principal Threat Researcher at SophosLabs. A former naval officer, systems administrator, and network systems integrator with 20 years of experience in IT journalism, he lives and works in Baltimore, Maryland. Argentina Brazil Canada (English) Canada (French) Caribbean (English) Caribbean (Spanish) Chile Colombia Costa Rica Ecuador El Salvador Guatemala Hispanoamerica Mexico Panama Peru Puerto Rico (English) United States Uruguay Venezuela
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