After Cambridge Analytica data breach, Facebook is facing yet more outrage. Over a feature that lets it record your call and SMS logs. Don’t be a worry. Here is a guide on how to stop Facebook from collecting your SMS texts, calls, and contacts.
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How to stop Facebook from collecting your SMS texts, calls, and contacts
FACEBOOK users deleting their accounts are raising the alert on the measure of personal data the organization holds, including complete logs of incoming and outgoing calls.
The #deletefacebook campaign began after Cambridge Analytica data breach. And now Facebook is facing yet more outrage over a feature that lets it record your call and SMS logs. So here I am writing about how to stop Facebook from collecting your SMS texts, calls, and contacts.
You have two alternatives in the event that you choose to leave the Facebook: you can either deactivate and keep your data stored on Facebook, or delete your account and download a back-up of the data the Facebook stores on you.
It’s this individual information document that uncovers the degree of Facebook’s snooping. And it has come as a stun to a few.
One user, Dylan McKay, said that for the period October 2016 to July 2017. His logs contained “the metadata of each phone call I’ve ever made, including time and span” and “metadata about each instant message I’ve ever gotten or sent?.
Downloaded my facebook data as a ZIP file
Somehow it has my entire call history with my partner’s mum pic.twitter.com/CIRUguf4vD
— Dylan McKay (@dylanmckaynz) March 21, 2018
Download your Facebook account .zip off their site, unzip it, then go to the HTML folder, open the contact_info.htm file. See records of who you’ve talked to on your cell—not with the app, just on your regular cellphone—and for how long. https://t.co/l9BDEJu3Hx
— Mat Johnson (@mat_johnson) March 23, 2018
I’ve just looked at the data files I requested from Facebook and they had every single phone number in my contacts. They had every single social event I went to, a list of all my friends (and their birthdays) and a list of every text I’ve sent.
— Emma Kennedy (@EmmaKennedy) March 25, 2018
Furthermore, others are additionally communicating worry over the data that is being logged, including their contacts, friends’ birthday celebrations, and their calendars.
Facebook denies it collects call and SMS data from phones without permission. But, Messenger for Android likewise requests that permission read call and SMS logs for a comparable reason, which is at that point persistently gather unless you disable the feature.
How to stop Facebook from collecting your SMS texts, calls, and contacts
It’s fairly simple to block Facebook from keeping an eye on your calls and contacts.
- Start the Facebook Messenger app on your Android device
- Then tap your profile picture.
- After that, select ‘People’.
- Then select ‘Sync Contacts’ – and turn it off.
Repete the same procedure for iOS. You can view and remove your contacts from the “Uploading and managing your contacts” page.
Here you likewise have the alternative to “delete all” of the contacts you’ve added to Facebook.
Moreover, you can block it by for permanently deleting your Facebook account.
Facebook said, “Call and text history logging is part of an opt-in feature for people using Messenger or Facebook Lite on Android.”
“This helps you find and stay connected with the people you care about and provides you with a better experience on Facebook. People have to expressly agree to use this feature.”
It continued: “While we receive certain permissions from Android, uploading this information has always been opt-in only.