Facebook Says Its Messenger App Isn't A Tool To Spy On Users | TechTree.com

Facebook Says Its Messenger App Isn't A Tool To Spy On Users

Given the company's recent "experiments" on users, it isn't hard to see where these accusations are coming from

 

There has been a recent uproar among the more privacy centric tech users that Facebook's messenger app is a tool for spying on them and tracking their movements. The company however (typically) wants you to believe no such thing, and released a statement explaining why the app requires access to your smartphone camera and microphone.

According to a statement from Peter Martinazzi, a member of the Facebook Messenger development team, the app doesn't listen or watch your through your phones microphone or camera. Instead, it asks users for access to their camera and microphone for them to make audio chats or send photos and videos.

“Like most other apps, we request permission to run certain features, such as making calls and sending photos, videos or voice messages. If you want to send a selfie to a friend, the app needs permission to turn on your phone’s camera and capture that photo. We don’t turn on your camera or microphone when you aren’t using the app,” read the statement from the company.

The other grouse among users is the way Facebook just turned off the ability to chat with friends within its main app, forcing everyone to download its Messenger app. The company justifies the move by claiming that people respond 20 percent faster when they're on Messenger compared to Facebook's standard mobile app.

[Also read: The Way Facebook Combats Clickbait Will Blow Your Mind!]

It isn't hard to see where the recent accusations against the social networking giant are coming from. The company has made quite a few questionable moves which violate user privacy in the past, and some down right immoral ones such as the experiment to study user psychology by tinkering with their new feeds.

It isn't a bad idea to be skeptical about your privacy while using certain services, especially ones like Facebook and Google that are highly user data hungry. I see a time in the not too distant future where these companies have to improve transparency about what they do with user data, giving people a better idea about what they're getting into when signing up for a certain service.


TAGS: Facebook, Messenger, instant messaging, Privacy, Social Network

 
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