First off, go read this: thatsnonsense/blog/the-truth-about-facebooks-new-messenger-app-and-its-permissions/ So, we demand from Android and iOS a way to protect our online presence with increased privacy controls and be alerted every time an app tries to use a feature on our phone. And now we all go bat-crazy when Facebook requests permission to access those features... If you really think about it, whats preventing other apps such as Skype from turning on your microphone at random, or allowing SnapChat to randomly take pictures without your knowledge or permission? What about Instagram? When you install these apps, they have to ask for the SAME EXACT SET OF PERMISSIONS that Facebook and Facebook Messenger have to request, and YOU have to grant them! If youre really that paranoid, dont forget that the already has access to your phone, so why have a phone in the first place? No really, in what scenario exactly were you thinking when you were standing in line at the cell phone store, or clicking buy now online that you thought, Hmm, having a microphone and a couple of cameras on my phone would be super convenient, especially since they are always connected to the Internet! did you think that it would NOT be a good idea to let all of those great apps access your phone? Here are my philosophisms for being online, all the time: 0) YOU ARE A TERRORIST if youre telling your friends and/or random strangers that the Facebook Messenger app is recording anything, making random phone calls, sending random text messages, or mapping your GPS location without their knowledge! Think about it - what do terrorists do, and what are YOU doing? They incite fear in a population and force them to all think and act in a predictable manner by using propaganda or force. You told your friends that the Messenger app can do these things and that they should uninstall it out of FEAR without any truth or actionable fact to support your thesis. This being said, Ive been proven wrong before, so if you still think Facebook Messenger is still as threatening as you make it seem, feel free to prove your point. 1) If hackers/crackers/no-good-doers really want ANY information about you, they will get it. Period. No amount of privacy-policy-making, governmental regulation, or even uber-secure hardware/software will prevent them from finding your name, birthday, addresses, or what you ate three weeks ago at that one shady-looking burger joint. But even if you have never used a cell phone, hard line, or TI-82 graphing calculator, the fact that you dont exist in Google doesnt exactly mean you dont exist in Cyberspace somewhere. 2) The government is NOT out to get your information. They already have that information anyway because either you or someone you know gave them that information! If you were born a US Citizen, then they already have your full name, address, place of birth, and SSN. Im not saying that we dont have any idiots working for the government, and Im not saying that arent people in the government who could sell your information for cash and favors. But unless youre the type that publicly announces that you are indeed paranoid and untrusting of the government, the government should be the least of your worries in regards to Facebook Messenger, or any other app on your phone for that matter. 3) There is no gain for anyone to record spontaneous microphone recordings or take random videos/photos from your phone, let alone from MILLIONS OF PEOPLES PHONES. Unless you are giving people a reason to desire your information, chances are that not even hacker groups have any want or need for your random conversations with your cat, or photos of what your back jeans pocket insides look like. Besides, even the largest botnets and supercomputers would require months if not years to process that amount of data, sort through it, and extract any decent amount of useable information. In other words, your phone is simply NOT WORTH HACKING because YOU ARE PROBABLY INSIGNIFICANT in terms of gaining valuable data. 4) If you want to use the features on your phone that make it worth the $200-$1200 retail price, youre gonna have to give up a little bit of privacy to these apps so they can do what theyre designed to do in a way that only you want it. If you can think of a better way to for app designers to make better apps, maybe you should be applying for a job with these people and spending less time spreading rumors about Facebook Messenger. This is not the last I will blog on the subject, but Im already so bored and sick of reading the rumors that ranting about it is no longer giving me any pleasure.
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 22:52:20 +0000