Facebook Privacy Issues

[David Baxter PhD]

The recent news story about Facebook and privacy, in my opinion, has been overblown but nonetheless I understand why people might be concerned. My view is that Facebook does a decent job of allowing you to configure your privacy preferences and of reminding you to review, check, and edit those preferences. When I used the instructions below to check what saved data Facebook has on me, the result was none - and I'm not a fanatic about the issue - I just use common sense.

The article below tells you how to check what Facebook data exists on you, if any, and how to fix it if you don't like what you find.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

How to view and delete Call and SMS History from Facebook forever
by Ashish Mohta, The Windows Club
March 31, 2018

We all know how much permission we have given to Facebook when it comes to personal data. They practically know everything about us, and its just not because we keep posting everything on Facebook, but their apps on our phones read everything about us. I have written extensively how extensive the Facebook Data History is and what all information it stores about us. If you have installed the Messenger App, then you will have given Facebook access to all your phone contacts. Facebook will then have access to all phone calls made & SMS text messages sent by you, and it maintains a log. Let us see how to view and delete Call and SMS history from Facebook forever.

In this post, I am highlighting the Messenger App. It’s a dedicated app for person to person conversation which doesn’t need any introduction. What you might have missed on is how much it reads from your phone. When you had first installed it on your phone, it asks specifically two things-

First, it takes your permission to read all your contacts & sync them online. During that, the app clearly states that all your Call and SMS History will be uploaded to the Facebook server. The second thing it has asked is to become your default messaging app which again means; you give it complete access to all your SMS.

Here is a screenshot of the tweet from Dylan McKay, who found details in his Facebook Archives.



To know if this is true for you, follow the steps below:

• Open Messenger App, and tap on the Profile which is on the top right side.
• Scroll to find People, and tap on it.
• Here you can notice two important things.
  
  • Sync Contacts
  • Continuous Call and SMS Matching.

If these are turned on, Facebook is syncing your calls and SMS which also include names, time, and duration of every call. If it’s turned off, you are good.

The data collection can be turned off in a user’s settings, and all previously collected call and text history shared on the app will be deleted, Facebook says.

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Stop Facebook from collecting Call & Text history
To delete all your previous calls, and messages that have been synced to the Facebook servers, turn both the settings off, and it will delete the previously collected call, and text history shared on the app.



Tap on the second option – Continuous call and SMS matching. It will give you a warning saying “If you turn off the call, and SMS history Uploaded, you’ll no longer see the names, and photos of your contact“.



While Facebook might have wanted to use it to make sure user experience and call experience works on the Facebook, it definitely has taken all the data on their servers, and this is something which cannot be accepted. A fair warning from time to time should have been passed to the consumers.

Make sure never to turn on this option when you had to reinstall the app or even when Messenger prompts you, because they will do, and you will be in the trap again. Make sure to download your data after some time, and verify if all these are gone.