Glad I never joined Facebook

[Jim Becker]

The plot thickens to a minor degree. There is now evidence emerging that facebook was also harvesting data off of peoples phones using their app. This included things like contact information, and sms and call records.

That was an opt-in on Android devices, so members using those devices clicked "yes" to allow access to the information and sync their address books. The language may not have been clear, but yes, it was essentially legal. The easy fix is to un-sync contacts which turns off the data gathering.

Facebook is also in process of rolling out more extensive control by a member over their personal data and folks will hopefully take advantage of that to assure that only information they want to be available is available.

[Carlos Alvarez]

That was an opt-in on Android devices

Also on Windows and iOS. It was opt-in everywhere. But users opt in without bothering to read what they are enabling, then act all offended that the device/app did exactly what it said it was going to.

[Ryan Mooney]

They always did that, and said so. I don't understand this "now" stuff. You install FB and the app security tells you what it will harvest and use.

I didn't feel that it was as clear that it was harvesting all of your data for sale to third parties as it could have been. That your in-app facebook "friends", etc.. is fair game was always pretty clear.

[Jim Becker]

Also on Windows and iOS. It was opt-in everywhere. But users opt in without bothering to read what they are enabling, then act all offended that the device/app did exactly what it said it was going to.

True, it was opt-in for all, but I believe that only on Android were they able to scarf the call data, etc. Android is, um...shall we say...not always as secure as folks might like it to be.

[Carlos Alvarez]

True, it was opt-in for all, but I believe that only on Android were they able to scarf the call data, etc. Android is, um...shall we say...not always as secure as folks might like it to be.

Gotcha, and correct, there was more data available to them on Android. A common complaint about iOS is that it's locked down...which is good for most consumers, not so good for hackers. I have Androids for hacking and playing, iDevices for real work.

I honestly didn't even bother reading any of the articles. The data is stuff I expected them to be using, and has zero consequence to security as far as I saw, so I tuned out.