Facebook new app update let them record sound & video from your phone, at any time, without your con

Originally posted by MrMaybeNot
reply to post by threewisemonkeys

 

Alright, then you noticed that when you have auto update turned on, some apps still won't update because they're asking for new permissions and it makes you agree to it. In this new version, they're asking for audio and camera control, but I can'f find any new features?

Perhaps because the old version had already been granted those permissions? The ability to access the Camera directly in app has been there for a while now and permission would have been granted (or not) in whatever update that was. I tend not to use autoupdate on the off chance. There's an app called RootExplorer, you can get the free version from the store. It will display the permissions of files and apps, think your device only needs to be rooted to modify, not view. Also check out xdadevelopers, plenty of reading there.

Your Claim

Originally posted by 0mage
as i have found.. disabling the permission across facebook and the camera app left 0 loss of functionality. everything works fine.. it juts only works when i manually activate it rather than randomly recording me during the day for a possible upload over wifi to some privacy invasion logging server.

i have seen what "without ur consent" means on the android platform. and it is not just to run in the background.. it is to fully function without providing the user a notification or interface of any type

You claim your facebook app works fine with disabled permissions which i find hard to believe. Do you have evidence to back up that claim? For example, did you check your system's log file for errors?

First off, lets try to understand how Android works (Google: Android Developer Website )

Because Android sandboxes applications from each other, applications must explicitly share resources and data. They do this by declaring the permissions they need for additional capabilities not provided by the basic sandbox. Applications statically declare the permissions they require, and the Android system prompts the user for consent at the time the application is installed. Android has no mechanism for granting permissions dynamically (at run-time) because it complicates the user experience to the detriment of security.

Please read the page referenced above and try to understand how permissions work in Android. For example some permission are only enforced when an app is doing a specific task, (for example, when you use facebook to access the camera to take a picture).

As my mom used to say "little knowledge is dangerous, and knowledge is key to freedom". There is no need for paranoia concerning these permissions. Besides if you feel Facebook Inc. is recording you without your consent thus violating your privacy and their privacy policy, you could always find out and then sue them for billions.

If any of you wish to deactivate your account AND delete all data associated with it, please read the below. It is an email I received form Facebook, detailing how to delete the data, after I tried to delete my account data by another means (here). Whether or not they actually delete the data, despite claiming they will, is another matter.

If you have already deactivated your account, the process will require you to log back in for the purposes of filling out an explicit request form. Submitting the form will cause a window to show up, confirming the account will be deactivated, and confirming the data will be deleted.

Hi,

We received your request to have your information removed from the Facebook database.

Our records indicate that there is an existing Facebook account associated with this email address. Please note that the form you submitted is only intended for people who do not have existing accounts. Unfortunately, we aren't able to respond to inquiries through this form from people who have already registered.

If you do not think you will use Facebook again and you would like to delete your account, you can do this yourself by taking the following steps:

1. Log in to your Facebook account.
2. Visit the Security section of the Help Center by following this link:
www.facebook.com...

Please keep in mind that once your account is deleted, you will not be able to reactivate the account or retrieve any of the content or information you have added.

If you wish to return to Facebook in the future, you can deactivate your account instead. Deactivation will completely remove your timeline and all associated content on your account from Facebook. In addition, people will not be able to search for you or view any of your information. If you reactivate your account, your timeline will be restored in its entirety (friends, photos, interests, etc.).

You can deactivate your account by following these steps:

1. Go to the Account Settings page by selecting the “Settings” link at the top of any Facebook page.
2. Click “Deactivate.
3. Select a reason for your deactivation, and click “Deactivate”.

To reactivate your account, simply log in with your email and password. If you have any further questions, please visit our Help Center at the following address:

www.facebook.com...

Thanks,
The Facebook Team

This is the email I received in response to the deletion request.

The omission of an explicit confirmation that the data will be deleted, is a little concerning.

Hi [NAME],

We have received a request to permanently delete your account. Your account has been deactivated from the site and will be permanently deleted within 14 days.

If you did not request to permanently delete your account, please login to Facebook to cancel this request:

www.facebook.com...


Thanks,
The Facebook Team

Wow, I didn't think Facebook could get more invasive but I guess I was wrong.

What's really scary is how many people will give it the okay. I've been debating deleting mine for months now but I haven't yet... it's like crack, it's got a stranglehold on me. I'll miss my friends who I don't have anything to do with outside facebook just too darn much. Seriously though, this is wacky and goes way past the lines of privacy. Scary stuff!

Originally posted by LiveEquation
Your Claim

Originally posted by 0mage
as i have found.. disabling the permission across facebook and the camera app left 0 loss of functionality. everything works fine.. it juts only works when i manually activate it rather than randomly recording me during the day for a possible upload over wifi to some privacy invasion logging server.

i have seen what "without ur consent" means on the android platform. and it is not just to run in the background.. it is to fully function without providing the user a notification or interface of any type

You claim your facebook app works fine with disabled permissions which i find hard to believe. Do you have evidence to back up that claim? For example, did you check your system's log file for errors?

First off, lets try to understand how Android works (Google: Android Developer Website )

Because Android sandboxes applications from each other, applications must explicitly share resources and data. They do this by declaring the permissions they need for additional capabilities not provided by the basic sandbox. Applications statically declare the permissions they require, and the Android system prompts the user for consent at the time the application is installed. Android has no mechanism for granting permissions dynamically (at run-time) because it complicates the user experience to the detriment of security.

Please read the page referenced above and try to understand how permissions work in Android. For example some permission are only enforced when an app is doing a specific task, (for example, when you use facebook to access the camera to take a picture).

As my mom used to say "little knowledge is dangerous, and knowledge is key to freedom". There is no need for paranoia concerning these permissions. Besides if you feel Facebook Inc. is recording you without your consent thus violating your privacy and their privacy policy, you could always find out and then sue them for billions.

edit on 19-1-2013 by LiveEquation because: (no reason given)

just hope ur not insinuating that im lying. i dont need to impress anyone. just trying to put a helping hand. what kind of proof do u want? screenshots?

i can provide u screenshots easily of what my fone notifies me of all the failed attempts of background services attempting to do things during the day they have no right or no need to do. my permissions and my firewall works fine.
i have disabled said permissions and am able to take pictures with my camera thru the facebook app and share them just fine. the camera is simply unable to do the same thing in the background when im not using it. AND IT SHOULDNT BE!

To me it is a direct indication that the permission is not necessary for the functioning of the basic services users use. exactly what use does my camera app require to view what the camera is seeing or access the record audio path without notifying the user while running in the background?. maybe im wrong but i envision the capability to have realtime streaming video and audio to a backdoor. again. permission disabled and everything works fine. try it urself.

if u really want ill go thru the trouble of creating screenshots. i was planning on making a "lock down your fone and kick google out' youtube instructional video anyway.

Things like this make me so glad I am not on Facebook or MySpace or Twitter or whatever else there is. I don't need a bunch of folks knowing all my business. Heck, from what I see from friends and family it looks to me like Facebook is nothing but a lot of drama and time wasting.

I've always had a feeling these social media sites were up to something that I wouldn't approve of. Just think, if they are saying they can record you at any time without your permission or knowledge, what are they up to that you don't know about?

One last thought- it looks to me like people are going to be eventually forced into joining one of these social media sites. In a way it would be kind of like the Mark of the Beast where no man could buy or sell without it. I'm just sayin'.

While not specific to the recording issues of Facebook, the following is what finally brought me to delete my personal account. During the MySpace days, pre-Facebook, I was attending a small psychology graduate school in California. I give a description for the sake of mentioning that this institution was not one to have a large student body posting photos, people's names, etc. online. If there was a photo taken of you, you knew who took it and when it was taken. At that time I took a week long training seminar with two specific instructors. Since the class was tight-nit, we took a few group photos at the end of the week which were posted on a MySpace profile of one of the students.

Fast forward five years or so, I started to have the professors I took the training with appear on my "People You May Know" list on Facebook! Please note, that the photos taken and subsequently posted on MySpace did not have our names attached to them. They were just photos. Nowhere else is my name linked to these two professors online in any form. This means, that Facebook is using active facial recognition combined with purchased warehoused data, bought from MySpace or their partners, to assemble profiles on their users.

Since my information is being bought and sold in open markets and I'm not getting compensation, I really don't feel like it is worth to continue to support the aggregation of such. Granted, Gmail is only free because of the data stored on you. However, I value the service enough to accept this trade-off. With Facebook, there is no benefit that cannot be gained through other means, without advertisements, and all the mindless filler...that's what Tumblr is for!

Originally posted by rockoperawriter
wow i'm so glad i don't have a cell phone

Right there with you, no real need for one. Don't believe in them, or trust them. When i tell people I don't have a cell phone, they look at me like I just grew a third arm or something.

reply to post by brandiwine14


That's the goal, make it fun. Imagine if a private company was to start mailing forms to everyone asking them about every details of their personal lives. No one would fill it up. None of their business. Heck, some people are reticent to fill up census forms, and its the government.

Facebook does it successfully, and no one's complaining. It's a private entity, and yet they hold more information about us than the government does. Information is power, the ones at the top know that, and if you're one of them, you know Facebook is a pretty damn good investment.

Over 1 billion registered users, and over 800 millions active users.

reply to post by thomasblackraven


Alot of people do believe what you're saying and you agreed to it when you agreed to the terms and conditions. Who reads that, right?

I know I don't Not proud of it

Thanks for putting this up OP. This just shows you how the world is doomed. If people have a physical stalker watching and following they're every move they'll call the cops, but to have this app it's perfectly acceptable. Thus the world plumits further into totalitarian hands.

Originally posted by TortoiseKweek

Originally posted by threewisemonkeys
You can spin it any way you like but all it says is the app wont ask your permission should you decide to, for example, take a photo directly in app, as opposed to uploading from your Gallery. Likewise with voice. It's called integration. Users don't want to receive an on screen prompt at every button press just because a permission is required. No different from the Camera app opening right up instead of asking you if its ok for the camera to be accessed by the app first. You'll find permissions like this on virtually every Android or iOS app that requires access to those functions. Don't like it? Don't install the app.

Do you have any links / proof / justification for what you just said? If so, please provide.

Common sense or if you own a phone go look at it.

reply to post by Gridrebel


this is exactly how I feel most people won't understand the meaning of this.. yet I do have a Facebook because I feel it a great way to share this kind of information I made a post on my wall showing this to people and have only had one or two people even like it. most people don't want t accept that there privacy is a thing of the past apparently. so now they can record you when your taking a #

or say your having a hypothetical conversation about say something that would be considered treason and they just start recording mid conversation and then now your a terrorist because they didn't listen to the first half.

I don't like what happening to our society.

So glad i stopped using FB about a year ago. Wonder what the purpose of this is. Seems strange that a social network site would spy (for lack of a better word) on people.

Must be a higher power at work here.

reply to post by chrome413

To buy and sell.... well, one thing I like is finding bargains when i am shopping for something, however, no matter how much I've needed something or wanted it just because, I have NEVER done a LIKE on FB just to get a discount. I just don't think my friends should have to be told that I am interested in something. If they are my friends they may already know, especially if they are close friends of mine.

You know, I would have agreed with those here saying that this is normal android permissions for function except it just doesn't add up. The usage of a camera for status updates has been there for quite a while, but I have yet to notice these specific permissions in past updates. Also, the use of the word anytime bothers me a bit. Permission explanations are always written in a very "legal" manner, typically very specific in nature. Despite that, these seem very broad and sweeping.

reply to post by igniterevolution


Just think of the possibilities, a million mics.... kind of reminds me of the plot in the Charlies Angel's Movie that was out a few years back where somebody wanted to track somebody and they could do it using special technology whiel they were on their phone by listening to every conversation and, using voice recognition, match a voice to a call in progress and then locate the device etc.. so even if the phone wasn't linked to a specific person (ie:ghost phone or cash phone etc.) the voiceprint /# match would do it. Now I am not goign to speculate that this is the goal in this case but here is a little extra to think about and see how things may add up someday.
Law enforcement has the ability to use city-wide monitoring microphones to triangulate on a gunshot or so I have been told. Now lets say a supposed terrorist has done something and is trying to go underground using an untraceable phone to call another unknown number but tbtp have a known voice sample, send a signal out to all cells in a certain radius and listen in case the subject is talking nearby one of the roving mics, keep searching different zones until you have sucessful then triangulate location.

Just saying, why pay for fixed surveillance when the masses can do it for free....

reply to post by Gridrebel
Star & Flag. Thanks for the great thread.

Here is a news article about a study that says that you "might be a psychopath' if you're not on Facebook. Wow.

Not on Facebook? You might be a psychopath...

Also, I want to warn people, if you have not heard, about Verizon's patent for a DVR box that also has cameras, heat sensors, and microphones built in. They say they just want to be able to provide better advertisements...

Verizon Spy Cam

reply to post by MrMaybeNot


That is unreal! Well, should be; all too real, sadly! You can bet that a TON of people simply update, and don't even bother to read the permissions. That this will happen is proven by how many pages you can review, pictures, videos, everything, when you are not even logged in. S&F for sharing this. This is exactly the sort of reason I have resisted, and will continue to resist, getting any kind of smart phone. The articles and reports on how many would include personal data, including location, with photos people uploaded, was enough for me. Things like this Big Brother move on the part of Facebook are another! Wow.....

I am going to have to make a serious effort to get family to use email, and IM services, and stop depending on Facebook for all contact! That is the ONLY reason I have an account at all there. I never understood this crazy attraction to social media sites in the first place. I kind of liked the old MySpace, because it was more like a free webpage, and you could post blogs there, and whatnot. You can't even personalize Facebook, and it's all about sharing everything you do with the entire planet. "Come!", says Big Brother, "Let me make a place where you can share every detail of your life. All your thoughts, dreams, fights, activities, friends, family members, location by-the-minute, pictures, videos, your every word! Give it all to me, and I will destroy your privacy, and you will love me for it." When I read 1984, I wanted to believe people would never be that stupid. Some days, I really don't want to be the same species as most people......