Facebook collected users’ phone call and text message data for two years, according to a report from Ars Technica.
The news outlet cites various Facebook users who discovered the social media platform scraped metadata from their Android smartphones.
The data reported included the names of contacts, phone numbers, call lengths, and SMS and MMS metadata.
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Facebook responded in a blog post on Sunday, saying it has not been logging users’ call and SMS history without permission.
“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 across Facebook,” the company said.
“People have to expressly agree to use this feature. If, at any time, they no longer wish to use this feature they can turn it off in settings, or here for Facebook Lite users, and all previously shared call and text history shared via that app is deleted. While we receive certain permissions from Android, uploading this information has always been opt-in only,” it continued.
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Facebook collected users' phone call, text message data: report https://t.co/kJlcI67sRc pic.twitter.com/TFC0h9lTe5
— The Hill (@thehill) March 26, 2018
BREAKING: FTC INVESTIGATING FACEBOOK OVER “SUBSTANTIAL” DAMAGE TO CUSTOMER PRIVACY https://t.co/7gBRCuqAaM
— Eric Garland (@ericgarland) March 26, 2018
LEAN IN to massive privacy invasion and unethical profiteering off people dumb enough to have a FSBook account. https://t.co/HLp0nw090q
— John Schindler (@20committee) March 26, 2018
All those privacy-invading things that FSB Eddie & his Kremlin pals falsely told you #NSA was doing? Facebook was actually doing them all.
— John Schindler (@20committee) March 26, 2018
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