This topic is a non-stop when we talk about the company. Now some security researchers have warned users about why they should remove Facebook from your iPhone. This is due to the continuous data control that the app has over us.
Always gathering information
The investigation has concluded that, even if the user decides not to be tracked by applications developed by third parties, Facebook continues to collect information on locations using the metadata of your photos and IP addresses. On the other hand, they state that it also uses the accelerometer of the phone to track the user’s movements. This helps determine if you are using your device sitting down or lying down. In this way, the application is able to know our behavior and activities at specific times of the day.
Talaj Haj Bakry and Tommy Mysk, the researchers who have made this discovery argue that: “Facebook reads the data the accelerometer all the time. If you do not allow access to your location, the application can continue to deduce your exact location only by grouping you with users who match the same vibration pattern that your phone registers ”. The worst thing is that there is no way to disable this and prevent it from extracting the data.
Not only happens with Facebook
As expected, the rest of the software that belongs to the American company, that is, Instagram and WhatsApp, they also gather information while not in use. However, unlike the other two, in the latter you can disable this functionality.
Mysk checked to see if other similar apps used the user’s accelerometer and the result was surprising. Neither TikTok, WeChat, Telegram, iMessage and Signal use it to compile information.
The researcher adds that: “it is amazing what apps can do with these measurements.” Specifically, they can find out the person’s heart rate and movements. The worst thing is that all iOS applications can read this information without any permission.
The company has assured Forbes that this data is used “for functions such as shaking to inform, and to guarantee certain types of camera functionality.” But even if this function is disabled, keep extracting data accelerometer. So the only way to avoid this is uninstall Facebook from your device.
Anyway, if you think that going from iPhone to Android things will change too much, you are very wrong.