Facebook’s forceful implementation of Facebook Messenger was not a popular move. It became even less popular when the public found out that the social media’s new phone application was reportedly mining its phones for data.
It has been reported that the app not only syncs with people’s phone cameras, photo libraries and contact lists, but it also looks at text messages and emails and broadcasts the user’s location.
The Facebook Messenger App is one of many that mines phones for data without the user knowing or giving permission, according to Neal Parker, an assistant teaching professor who hold a doctorate in computer and information systems. Even Facebook users who don’t have the messenger app are having their information taken without their knowledge, according to Parker.
“[Facebook] runs on AJAX, which lets it refresh on its own,” Parker said. “If you type something in, they know what you typed as you typed it. You don’t have to press enter.”
According to Parker, manually deleting information doesn’t mean the company or website will forget the data. Parker said the user does not own the information Facebook has about them; Facebook does, and it can choose what to do with it.
“You can delete it, but they don’t have to honor that delete request, and they usually don’t, not in the [United States],” Parker said.
Parker said people should keep in mind that they are not the customer, they are Facebook’s product, which is being sold to its real customers: advertising companies. Data aggregators consume users’ information, and according to Parker selling the users’ location to those data aggregators monetizes the app.
“They will mine your email,” Parker said. “Facebook is building shadow profiles for people who don’t have a Facebook profile, and they start gathering information about them from the credit reporting agencies.”
According to Sanjum Gupta, a freshman in psychology originally from India, the Messenger app controversy didn’t concern her much and has not affected her decision to use the app. She mostly uses the app to keep in touch with her friends back in New Delhi, India, who don’t have international messaging or don’t have iMessage.
“I was annoyed at having to download a separate app because my phone doesn’t have a lot of [storage] space,” Gupta said. “But I am not worried about this. Why worry about this one when everything else steals your info too? Why is this one special?”
Another international student, Molly Gregersen from Australia, shared Gupta’s sentiment. Gregersen, a junior in communications, said she doesn’t feel particularly concerned about Facebook’s Messenger application.
“It scared me at first when I heard it, but now I feel like I’ve got myself in too deep,” Gregersen said. “I have all these apps that can take my info. Obviously it’s not right, but I’m not particularly concerned with Messenger in general; I’m sort of worried about the overarching thing that all apps and websites can take your info and [we] just give it away so freely.”
According to Parker, Facebook is part of a social media cycle wherein something newer and better comes along every few years and we absorb it into the social consciousness without much trouble. He said to a certain extent he feels we knew this type of scandal was coming because everything phone-based has to go to the apps at some point, and it gives the developer control over the user experience.
“[Facebook] provides an incredible service, an incredibly valuable service,” Parker said. “People use it because so many people are involved in it, and it does good stuff. It’s just that the price we’ve had to pay for it is probably a lot higher than I think we were initially prepared for.”
Parker said knowing a person’s location is extremely valuable as the immediacy one can get with interactions is extremely high. Data mining regulations make the job companies such as Facebook have to do more difficult, and it makes it more expensive for their customers, according to Parker, who didn’t hesitate to restate that users of the website remember that they are not the customers, the advertisers are.
“Keep reminding yourself that you are not the customer, you are the product,” Parker said. “[Does Facebook] need that level of information? No. Can they do what they are doing without it? Yes.”
According to Parker, Facebook isn’t the only website or application to collect data from people’s phones without their knowledge or consent. However, Parker said he feels this isn’t something people should be overly concerned with.
“At some point though you have to ask yourself ‘Am I really that important?’ I have, and I’ve decided that I’m not,” Parker said.
