Facebook Accused of Reading Text Messages via App

[gm0n3y]

It seems like every app I install asks for permissions to access all of my data. Even simple apps like a notepad or flashlight want to know who I'm calling, what I'm texting, what sites I'm visiting, etc.

It seems like if you can make a free app that is marginally useful, you can make a ton of money just making it run all the time in the background collecting personal data and selling it.

 

[maxwebb]

The problem, according to the paper, is that these features are clearly labeled in the terms and conditions

the terms and conditions to which they refer is also known by eula or the end user license agreement. interestingly enough the legality of a eula itself is completely ambiguous. some court judges determine them legal and others don't. http/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End-user_license_agreement

so... every one of these app owners are gambling with very high stakes. depending on how a judge 'feels about it' will determine whether it is legal, or a very high federal crime.

 

[Hansy]

Facebook has both advantages and disadvantages, try to grasp only the advantages.

 

[casand]

Facebook App decline is really a useful and good for privacy settings.

 

[Guest]

I mentioned the term, "shopping mall" in a text earlier today, and was then recommended the Facebook page for, "Shopping Mall" on my homepage just now, hence doing a Google search and ending up here. So unless that's just a massive coincidence, they obviously have scripts running to throw up advertisements based on what they can see you've been texting about.

So I've removed the Facebook app and simply created a bookmark to the mobile site, which is pretty similar anyway, but shouldn't have the same access, I bloody hope!

On a separate note, the latest update to Draw Something has included SMS access. Fortunately, I didn't have it on automatic update and I now know to check the permissions on the apps I download. It never even occurred to me, previously, that an app would ever have access to the SMS messages on a phone, unless it was actually a substitute for the built in SMS function in Android.

 

[Guest]

The real problem is that permissions are all-or-nothing. Give users a choice to deny individual permissions, then apps will stop being so greedy and cavalier with our privacy.