Facebook Caught Reading User SMS Messages?

Feb 27, 2012 // by RobertMiller // Blog // No Comments

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Another day, another privacy scandal… This time Facebook is in hot water as some news about its possible reading of user SMS messages has serviced. According to the Sunday Times newspaper out of London, Facebook “admitted” to “reading text messages” in trials and preparations to launch its own message service. The main allegations include:

- Data — including the user’s location, the phone numbers of contacts and their Internet history — are often accessed via apps and in some cases transmitted to “third party” companies including advertisers.

- Some companies can remotely control features on smartphones, including cameras, on which they can take pictures and video at any time.

- Downloading some basic apps leaves people vulnerable to a torrent of spam and invasive advertising.

However Facebook denies these allegations as a spokesperson told ZDNet that there is “no reading of user text messages,” and they go on to say that the Sunday Times Article is “completely wrong.” However they did say that the Android App for Facebook requires the SMS read and write capabilities but said it was for testing purposes. They wrote:

“Facebook said that lots of communications apps use these permissions, and the application technically has the capability to integrate with the phone’s SMS system, but added that it is for testing purposes. The company did not respond to the claim that the Times “admitted” to reading text messages, however.”

So while Facebook is denying allegations made it’s not clear on whether they read text messages or no and just continues to fuel the privacy issue flames. Given that most of us, myself included, rarely take the time to see what permissions we’re agreeing to when we download the apps we could very well be agreeing to let them do this. With coming into MWC 2012 with what Facebook plans on doing next in the world of mobile social networking, having an issue like this may cause some problems for them. One thing is for certain however, I am going to start reading app permissions more carefully, what about you?

source: Sunday Times
via: TechCrunch

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