Facebook Messenger = Bad

[Mojo-Jojo]

Badly written, poorly researched article. FUD.

Change the state of network connectivity

Doesn’t sound that bad right? Wrong you have just agreed to allow Facebook to change or alter you connection to the internet or cell service. Facebook now has the ability to turn features on or off on your phone, and doesn’t have to tell you why. Pretty scary.

This permission is mostly used to determine the connectivity on wifi. Doesn't allow for the quoted stuff.

 

Call phone numbers and send SMS messages

So Facebook can at any time for no reason decide to send a text message or call everyone in your contact list. So you’ve basically just handed your phone to a stranger and told them to have fun.

This is so you can call friends form within the app. This feature is also used because it can replace the default TEXT message. Again, completely pulled out of context.

 

Record audio, and take pictures and video at any time

Why would they need to do this? Why does Facebook want to listen in on my private conversations? Why do they want take pictures and video of things that I don’t want recorded? Think about that the next time you are perusing Facebook on the toilet.

YEAH. WHY WOULD YOU NEED PERMISSION TO RECORD AUDIO AND SNAP PICTURES IN AN APP THAT CAN SEND PICTURES AND VOICE MESSAGES!!!?!??!?!?!

 

Read your contact data, including who you call and email and how often

Remember when everyone was an an uproar about the NSA reading all your emails? Well how do you feel knowing you just gave Facebook permission to do the same thing.

That's not even a thing. It can only read contacts and, again, just for default SMS replacement, also to find friends who use messenger.

 

Read personal profile information stored on your device

Have addresses, personal info, pictures, video, etc. stored on your phone that you haven’t posted on Facebook? Well by agreeing to these privacy terms it doesn’t matter whether you upload them to the social network site, because they can just retrieve them off your phone.

They are not privacy terms. This permission is required to send things and save the pictures sent. And do you really think FB wants all that stuff? Selfimportant much.

 

Get a list of accounts known by phone

That’s right thanks to this new messenger app, Facebook now has your email login, your bank login, your twitter login, your itunes login, and anything else they decide to take. Some people call that identity theft.

No. It accesses these through the android API and Android asks for your permission. Furthermore it cannot access your password or use the credentials outside your phone.

 

 

Bullshit article.

[Thony]

Shayned97 = super bad

Copy and paste the link, done. Not a single word from him. Deserves physical punishment....

[juretrn]

Let's not forget the fact facebook app turns on the GPS module!

[Mojo-Jojo]

Let's not forget the fact facebook app turns on the GPS module!

It can't do that. Only once it requests android to do it, and android WILL ask you to confirm.

[Mysticode]

Someone please lock or delete this fear mongering, old "news" thread.

 

Thanks.

[Gnator]

The day I listen to some radio station for information about tech.... I will eat my arr i ono...

[juretrn]

It can't do that. Only once it requests android to do it, and android WILL ask you to confirm.

I never allowed facebook to do that, and it still does it. Every time I open the damn thing. 

[ttam]

I never allowed facebook to do that, and it still does it. Every time I open the damn thing. 

You allowed it. Most likely by blindly hitting yes to get something off the screen.

[juretrn]

You allowed it. Most likely by blindly hitting yes to get something off the screen.

Whatever it was, it's skillfully hidden under loads of user agreements or similar text walls. Eating up my entire battery in just a few hours and constant tracking attempts are not cool. 

[Gr0egercesg]

I can't believe the forum took so long to realise!!!

[nokturrduk84]

Stop being paranoiacs. Nothing's wrong with Facebook. All normal people use it. If you're so paranoiac, disconnect whole internet & live in a caves.

[SparkySamZa]

Change the state of network connectivity

Call phone numbers and send SMS messages

Record audio, and take pictures and video at any time

Read your phone’s call log, including info about incoming and outgoing calls

Read your contact data, including who you call and email and how often

Read personal profile information stored on your device

Get a list of accounts known by phone 

pretty much all apps are like this nowadays 

that's why i've got app opps to over ride them 

[Thony]

I can't believe the forum took so long to realise!!!

To realise what exactly ? This topic was discussed in depth many months ago before this app was forced for every fb user.

[cesrai]

Wow the info in the post.

 

[dalekphalm]

I can't believe the forum took so long to realise!!!

 

 

I can't believe the forum took so long to realise!!!

 

No need to repeat yourself...

[Gr0egercesg]

No need to repeat yourself...

Sorry

I didn't know it had posted

[LukeTim]

All of those permissions are necessary to provide all of the functionality that Facebook Messenger does. They are really not a security concern. And if you think they are, just don't install the App.

The real concern with Facebook Messenger is that it is (like everything Facebook touches) a horrible, unoptimized, bloated mess that murders your battery. I ran into a problem the other week where it had lost connection to the servers and couldn't reconnect. So it kept attempting to reconnect, indefinitely. This ate up a lot of juice through the 3G and my battery dropped 25% in 10 minutes. I uninstalled the App then and there and my battery life has never been better.