Facebook uploads android systems libraries with no opt out

[Dan Holmes]

A user on twitter has posted about a "feature" of the Facebook app for Android that reportedly scans, compresses and then uploads Android users entire system library. There appears to be no way to opt out and no indication to exactly why Facebook would need to do this or what they achieve by doing it.

 

Jane Wong (@wongmjane on twitter) the person who appears to have been the first person to publically find and expose this "feature" notes: "the files are uploaded to a specific collection that’s related to my phone" which begs the question if this might violate Europe's GDPR laws on storing Personally Identifiable information.

 

 

 

This might prove to be another big blow to Facebook's already heavily tarnished reputation for breaching user's perceived privacy.

 

Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/wongmjane/status/1167463054709334017?s=21

[Salv8 (sam)]

people using facebook 2019 (Colurised)

 

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

36 minutes ago, Dan Holmes said:

So:

1. Ive said how it's relevant to android phone users in my own words...

2. I've linked to the source which is the original person that broke the news and includes photographic proof

3. Includes quotes from the source link and has the relevant tags

 

So what specifically is the issue?

Well for one thing, Twitter is not a reputable source.

[Tsuki]

27 minutes ago, Dan Holmes said:

So what specifically is the issue?

not a mod, but i dont think twitter counts as a 'reputable news source'

however, here is her actual writeup

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1167463054709334017.html

 

 

honestly this isnt that big of an issue. all its doing is pulling metadata from the libraries, which is mostly used for compatibility testing.