Is Facebook Logging Your Phone Calls And Texts?

It hasn't been the best few weeks for Facebook after the revelations surrounding the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and now people are deleting the app following the discovery that the social network actually stores way more personal data than perhaps they ever realised.

For some users, this apparently includes logs of both incoming and outgoing calls as well as records of their text messages.

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If you didn't already know, Facebook hit headlines after it was revealed that following a data breach, the personal information of 50 million users fell into the hands of data analytics firm and election consultancy Cambridge Anayltica. Data was used to build a system that could apparently target US voters with political advertisements based on their personal and psychological details. 

And now people are beginning to realise the extent of data which having a Facebook profile allows the platform to obtain, including in some cases access to your call and text history. 

With the #deletefacebook movement sweeping social media, users are both deleting their accounts and downloading a copy of all the info about them the platform holds, which Facebook makes it able for you to download upon request in your account settings. What users doing this have found is just how extensive this data is and that by having an account, you are giving Facebook permission to collect it from you. 

Among these details seem to be logs of calls and texts, as the following Twitter users allege to have found in their Facebook data files. 

https://twitter.com/mat_johnson/status/977317787520720896

https://twitter.com/EmmaKennedy/status/977812310814314497

Facebook have addressed this and in a statement, a spokesperson explained that the point of giving ongoing access to your contacts is to help the platform help you to find people you know.

“Contact uploading is optional. People are expressly asked if they want to give permission to upload their contacts from their phone – it’s explained right there in the apps when you get started," they said. "People can delete previously uploaded information at any time and can find all the information available to them in their account and activity log from our Download Your Information tool.”

You can turn off continuous upload of contacts using the setting in the Messenger app, but the only way to permanently delete your data stored on the platform as a whole is to delete your account. If you've ever tried to delete your account, you may have had a push from Facebook to consider deactivating your account instead, so that you can come back to it in the future. But it should be noted that this means your data will still be stored and accessible by Facebook, and not deleted in the mean time. 

This is only a small part of the kinds of data stored on you and your preferences either, and if you're interested in just what your social media platforms know about you, this thread it worth a read:

https://twitter.com/iamdylancurran/status/977566839839617025

Thoughts on all this? Then drop us a tweet to @MTVUK.