By now you’re probably tired of hearing about how Facebook has abused user’s data and violated their privacy. If you’re an Android user – it ain’t over yet!
As a growing number of Facebook members are canceling their accounts and attempting to delete their data from Facebook many are getting quite the surprise. Facebook encourages departing users to download a zip file of their data on Facebook (posts, comments, photos and so on) before it’s deleted from Facebook servers.
People who have done so and then looked inside the zip file have been surprised to find that Facebook has been tracking all of their cell phone and text message activity – and in some cases, it’s been happening for several years.
How did this happen? Unfortunately – Android users did give Facebook permission to do this by granting the Facebook and Messenger apps permission to access their contacts.
Call and text history logging is part of an opt-in feature for people using Messenger or Facebook Lite on Android,” Facebook said in a blog post shared on Sunday, March 25. “This helps you find and stay connected with the people you care about and provides you with a better experience across Facebook. People have to expressly agree to use this feature.” What can you do? The good news? Facebook says the content of calls or text messages is not saved. Facebook also says that the data isn’t shared with third parties. And even better, users can delete the data that Facebook already has.
Inside the Messenger app, users can navigate to the home icon and then tap on their profile picture in the upper left corner. Inside the “people” option, users can switch off the option that says “sync contacts.” Facebook says that when the sync contacts option is turned off, previous contact information that was synced to the messaging platform is also deleted.
Users can also navigate to the contact page to see a list of the people added to Messenger as a result of that sync. From this page, users can also choose to delete all the contacts previously synced as well. Users that want to see just what data Facebook has on them can download a copy inside the General Account Settings. If you’ve decided to drop Facebook you can completely delete your Facebook account, which should also delete all your data on Facebook. You’ll have to go through several steps to retrieve your data from Facebook (unless you’re willing to abandon it all). Then you have to request that Facebook delete your account and all your data. It will ask you several times if you’re really sure and then make you wait several days for the deletion to complete. If you visit Facebook any time during those few days, even by accidentally opening the app, then the whole thing will cancel and you’ll have to start over again.
iPhone users can thank Apple for never allowing Facebook to access iPhone and iPad users’ call and text data.
Here’s a link to a website with a very good walk-through on how to delete apps that are harvesting your data – to make this process easier, I recommend you do this using your computer. https://qz.com/1233344/how-to-delete-apps-harvesting-your-data-on-facebook-and-how-to-delete-your-facebook-account/
