Facebook Is Draining Your iPhone Battery Because It’s Tracking Your Location

[jos]

Facebook has been constantly tracking your location using your iPhone’s GPS, and it’s draining your battery. On Thursday, Circa co-founder Matt Gilligan wrote on Medium that the Facebook app on his iPhone was running in the background, even when he turned off background refresh for the app, which is supposed to shut off most app functions. The app accounted for 15 percent of his battery drain as a result.As for what the app is actually doing while running in the background, nobody was certain, and Facebook wasn’t saying anything except for that it was hoping to find a fix.Security researcher Jonathan Zdziarski analyzed the Facebook app’s code and found that the app is sending devices’ location information to Facebook in the background. “If you move around a lot,” Zdziarski wrote me in an email, “you're likely to use more battery but the combination of GPS and networking going on in the background is likely the majority cause of battery drain.”

 

 

If it was a small time app, Apple would have kicked off the app from the app store a long time ago. But Apple cannot loose Facebook app..In its defense Facebook can  say i told you...

Source: http://motherboard.vice.com/read/facebook-is-draining-your-iphone-battery-because-its-tracking-your-location

[Maxwit44]

sorry but this well known. most apps track your location.

[DudeWazap]

Don't almost all apps track your location. Google Now is always tracking my location and I let it because I really like it.

[thekeemo]

Android users be like http://android.wonderhowto.com/how-to/manage-app-permissions-android-no-root-required-0161352/

[jos]

More quotes explaining why this is relevant to us, and how it works/effects us. You would have known this if you read the rules, and listened to the several other locked threads. Posting news isn't just about quoting a huge section with a link & 1 sentence.

So you say i have to break it like this..I cannot write how it works because it is in the original post and i cannot summarize, paraphrase, rephrase it without putting it in quotes as per law

1. IPhone is a tech product..
2. Many people use iPhone, even many using this forum,
3. Facebook is the most widely used app.
4. Most people like good battery life.
5. Since this is affecting your phones battery it may concern you

[ThomasD]

sorry but this well known. most apps track your location.

Many, many (not sure if most) use your location when you are actively using the app.

 

Facebook is doing it all the time.

 

Not exactly the same thing.

[atrash]

This is why I have no apps installed on my phone. I don't even have a line or sim installed because it could track my location. When I sleep, I keep my phone in a tin foil lined tupperware. /s

 

I thought you can disable the location tracking setting in the app itself? At least I can on my WP.

[minibois]

This is why I have no apps installed on my phone. I don't even have a line or sim installed because it could track my location. When I sleep, I keep my phone in a tin foil lined tupperware. /s

 

I thought you can disable the location tracking setting in the app itself? At least I can on my WP.

You can turn off GPS tracking in Android settings too, not sure if possible on iOS.

Maybe an iOS user can explain?

[ahkenatan]

You can turn off GPS tracking in Android settings too, not sure if possible on iOS.

Maybe an iOS user can explain?

Sure!

Apps are not given default permissions; each app must ask for a permission from the user when the app requires it. For example, if you were to open the Facebook app for the first time on your device, it might immediately ask you if you can let it access your location. If you select "Allow" (or whatever the wording is), the app... has permission to access your location. This setting can be changed in the Settings app under Privacy -> Location Services -> Select App -> Select Choice (Never, While Using, or Always). I'm assuming Facebook has the choices Never or Always, seeing as Always allows the app to access your location even when the app isn't open and that uses battery, and that's the case with the Facebook app.

 

Location Services can also tie in with Background App Refresh, which allows apps to... refresh their content in the background (when they're not open). I personally turn this setting off globally because apps NOT refreshing was actually a "feature" of iOS that I liked compared to Android, although some people prefer the opposite. Anyways, this setting is turned on by default and truthfully I do forget if apps require your permission (akin to Location Services) to refresh in the background. The point is, Background App Refresh can be another source of battery drain so it might also be playing a role in the Facebook app's battery drain.

 

EDIT: I should note that Background App Refresh is different from push notifications. For an app like Facebook, Background App Refresh would probably mean grabbing new posts from your news feed or downloading pictures sent over Facebook Messenger, where push notifications would only tell you that you had been tagged in something on Facebook or tell you that you've got a message.

[d4fty]

You can turn off GPS tracking in Android settings too, not sure if possible on iOS.

Maybe an iOS user can explain?

iOS user here, you can turn off location services for each app individually or just turn it off as a whole This has been a feature for a while now. I have always set Facebook to never use my location since I have no need for it to. I only have it enabled for apps that actually do require it.

I have the latest version of Facebook on my phone and I haven't noticed a single bit of significant battery loss because I turned location services off for it. Facebook just needs to tell their users to turn off location services until their app is fixed. But we know that won't happen.

EDIT:

Damn, someone beat me to it with a better explanation.

[PlayStation 2]

"Well, duh." - Marge Simpson, 1991

[Techicolors]

Android users be like http://android.wonderhowto.com/how-to/manage-app-permissions-android-no-root-required-0161352/

 

Android M also has a Privacy manager API that lets the user allow and block permissions at will. this kind of functionality should work for apps like FB though the app will need to actually support permission changes so users won't accidentally break the app. sadly android in general isn't entirely unified when it comes to software updates like iOS so OEMs can decide to not implement a permissions manager 

[thekeemo]

Android M also has a Privacy manager API that lets the user allow and block permissions at will. this kind of functionality should work for apps like FB though the app will need to actually support permission changes so users won't accidentally break the app. sadly android in general isn't entirely unified when it comes to software updates like iOS so OEMs can decide to not implement a permissions manager 

You sure? that sounds like a core setting.

[Techicolors]

You sure? that sounds like a core setting.

 

the image flashes for nexus devices have a permissions manager right in the settings panel. you can even change permissions of system apps. of course that means rendering particular services unusable 

 

you can check out this link if you wanna know more about the permissions API http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/10/android-6-0-marshmallow-thoroughly-reviewed/5/

[thekeemo]

the image flashes for nexus devices have a permissions manager right in the settings panel. you can even change permissions of system apps. of course that means rendering particular services unusable 

 

you can check out this link if you wanna know more about the permissions API http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/10/android-6-0-marshmallow-thoroughly-reviewed/5/

uhhh I have that on Android L... maybe its a CM thing

[Techicolors]

uhhh I have that on Android L... maybe its a CM thing

 

i think CM uses App Ops, which is pretty similar to Android M's permissions manager. App Ops existed since KitKat but google never really implemented in the fashion it is in Android M.