Why Is Facebook's App Asking To Read Your Text Messages?
Why Is Facebook' s
App Asking To Read Your Text Messages?
Hint: It might not be to see what you' re sexting.
By Chris
Gayomali
Over the last month or so, a few keen-eyed Android users
may have been startled by some peculiar permission requests when they tried to
update their Facebook app. One request asks to "read your text messages
(SMS or MMS)."
That' s not
exactly the kind of language users are likely to find reassuring, especially
after recent allegations that Facebook has been scanning private messages
within the social network. So, Facebook is currently on a PR offensive to calm
user fears. "We realize that some of these permissions sound scary,"
writes Facebook. "So we’d like to provide more info about how we use them
... If you add a phone number to your account, this allows us to confirm your
phone number automatically by finding the confirmation code that we send via
text message."
Make of those assurances what you will, and you can read
more about the other permissions here. Indeed, as one Reddit user point out,
Facebook has been asking for these SMS permissions for quite some time.
For what it' s
worth, Facebook isn' t the first app
to raise eyebrows for requesting information that some users might feel is
overly intrusive. Angry Birds had some explaining to do when it asked to read
to users' SMS texts in 2011. And
Path on iOS similarly found itself in hot water a year ago when it was caught
quietly collecting address books.
And remember: If Facebook' s
requests make you feel uncomfortable, and the benefits of having access to your
social network in your pocket don' t
outweigh your anxieties (which is fair!), there is always the proverbial delete
button.
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