Twitter users have begun to report that they have found a connection history in their downloadable Facebook file. All of this came to light in the context of the recent social networking scandal, the Cambridge Analytica case. The results of these searches do not inspire optimism.
Facebook collected call and SMS data from Android devices
Some Twitter users report that their Facebook files contain all the phones and text messages they have recently written. Others, in turn, found records of contacts with their loved ones. For years, Facebook has required access to contacts, SMS data and call history to improve its friend matching algorithm and distinguish between business contacts and ‘real’ friends.
As it turns out, Facebook collects this data through the Messenger application. That often notifies you that it can be the default application for sending SMS, i.e., text messages. Facebook, as it turns out, has been doing this for years, and although it is now explicitly saying that it will have access to one or the other data, previously the security measures in Android were not so restrictive.
According to Facebook, it is normal for applications to have access to phone call history when uploading an address book to a social media. Interestingly, such a history of data collection has not been recorded on iOS devices. So if you have Apple devices at home, such as iPhone 7. Also, you can still buy in Polish shops, you can rest assured. Most iOS applications do not have access to connection history or SMS, so Facebook or other programs cannot collect such data.