For years the antisocial media giant has claimed it doesn’t track your location, insisting to suspicious reporters and privacy advocates that its addicts “have full control over their data,” and that it does not gather or sell that data unless those users agree to it.
No one believed it. So, when it (and Google) were hit with lawsuits trying to get to the bottom of the issue, Facebook followed its well-worn path to avoiding scrutiny: it changed its settings and pushed out carefully worded explanations that sounded an awful lot like it wasn’t tracking you anymore. But it was. Because location data is valuable.
Then, late on Monday, Facebook emitted a blog post in which it kindly offered to help users “understand updates” to their “device’s location settings.”
It begins: “Facebook is better with location. It powers features like check-ins and makes planning events easier. It helps improve ads and keep you and the Facebook community safe. Features like Find Wi-Fi and Nearby Friends use precise location even when you’re not using the app to make sure that alerts and tools are accurate and personalized for you.”
So it is still tracking your precise locations even when you are not using the app. But Android and iOS are getting way sharper in now warning users and allowing better control from the OS. The sickening part though is how Facebook won’t let its users just get on with connecting with their friends and families, its always using their data in more and more ways to monetise in the background, until they are found out, apologise, and make another tweak.
See https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/09/10/facebook_location_tracking/
#deletefacebook #privacy
#^Facebook: Remember how we promised we weren’t tracking your location? Psych! Can’t believe you fell for that
Super-harvester of private info forced to confront new iOS, Android safeguards