Uninstalling Facebook Messenger is as effective as a tinfoil hat.

Tinfoil protection against Facebook

This article has been gaining popularity and has been reposted on facebook numerous times.  Claims that Facebook Messenger can spy on you. I've seen my friends re-post this and try to uninstall the application.  I have seen comments from many cursing Facebook and a few others commenting that it is completely inaccurate.  I finally could not take any more and had to blog in response to this article which is inaccurate and full of conjecture.  It is time to stop this hoax in its tracks.

I have been working in IT over 20 years.  Sam Fiorella (the articles author) from what I can tell from his biography has no real experience in IT.  What his bio claims he does have experience in is Influence Marketing.  Clearly his article proves that he is able to influence a lot of people through conjecture and scare tactics.  I don't claim to know anything about Marketing but I can say I know a lot about IT and software development.  I also like to think I know when someone is trying to pull one over on you. 

Sam's article is completely preposterous.  Sam states, "Facebook Messenger's attempt to collect so much information and take control of our devices is unprecedented and, quite frankly, frightening". First, none of this is unprecedented.  This is all based on some permission settings which authorizes the application to control your phones camera, audio, text messaging and calling functions.  He states that 1,000,000,000 users have downloaded the app and it is "alarming insight into the future of mobile apps".  This really is nothing new in the mobile world.  

Let me explain quite simply why Sam's article has no substance to it.  We will put the article aside for now and we will presume for a minute that this nefarious application is  hell bent to steal your information.  First lets figure out why we would want your personal information.  The only purpose I can see for any of your personal information is for marketing & sales.  Your phone could in theory report stores you went to, people you socialize with and interests you and your friends have.  However you give all this information up freely to Facebook all the time.  Through posts, likes and your biography , Facebook already has the information it needs and it uses it to target you with relevant advertisements.  Tracking cookies contain far more information about you.  I am sure that you have noticed that when you visit a blog like this after doing some shopping the sidebar fills with ads from that store you last visited.  It's not magic is tracking cookies and remarketing.  The Messenger application is not involved in any of this.  Yet this seems to be of little concern in the article.  

Actual photo from inside my pocket

Application permissions are used to grant the application access to many things.  Android is good at telling you what you are letting an application do to your phone.  If you happen to have an iPhone, don't expect the same treatment.  Sam completely missed that point and indeed iPhone users have been having their data used by Apple and other partners without consent for some time now.  Facebook Messenger may have the ability to record audio, video, SMS and make phone calls but the bottom line is that it doesn't.  How do I know you ask?  Very simply it is too much information for even Facebook and Google to process.  1 Billion downloads of messenger right?  Let us cut that in half to 500 million.  1 minute of HD video is approximately 60MB.  1 Minute of audio at 160Kbps is approximately 1MB in size.  So for just 1 user, for 1 minute you're looking at 60MB of data.  Now multiply that by the 500 million users for a grand total of 30,000,000,000,000,000 bytes per minute.  Or roughly 30 Petabytes of information every minute.  This much information in one minute would not only crush every server Facebook owns but it would likely crash every cell carrier on the planet.  This becomes even more insane when you think about 24 hours in a day.  I can tell you that my phone personally is looking at a ceiling or a nightstand for 8 hours a night.  Then for another good 8 it is on my desk at work.  So for 16 hours a day all you would record is blackness or a ceiling.  Then the 8 I sleep you can hear me snore.  The other 8 you can listen to me at work.  We shouldn't forget all that time my phone is in my pocket either. I frankly am honored that Mark Zuckerberg finds me that interesting.  If you still think Facebook is using your camera, audio, SMS and phone then you probably put on the tinfoil hat.  The lawsuits that would be generated by gathering this information would put Facebook out of business.  Here is another thought, if all this information was being sent to Facebook wouldn't your data usage be off the chart?  

Image: wikimedia/Jangelo9397

Your privacy is important.  I am in no way minimizing privacy for individuals.  You should have privacy but expecting it on a social media platform is ridiculous.  I am surprised that the Huffington Post article gained so much attention.  The news has had far more interesting privacy issues.  Hold Security reported 1 Billion passwords have been hacked.  This barely hit the radar with most people.  What is amazing is that most people have maybe one or two passwords.  Instead of focusing on real threats to your privacy we have an article that bashes Facebook.  Seriously?  

If the fact that Russian hackers likely have your password doesn't scare you then you should stop over at Packet Storm Security and read some articles there.  This is where the real news is regarding your privacy.  Facebook is protecting your data far more than it is using it.  If you are still concerned by all means stop using Facebook Messenger.  You might also want to stop using your phone all together.  All those pre-installed apps that you have on your phone have the same permissions as Facebook.  Oh yeah and the phone manufacturer can do even more. 

The media is not helping anyone by creating sensationalism and using conjecture to scare the public.  People without IT backgrounds certainly should not be suggesting that we uninstall applications to protect ourselves.  Uninstalling Facebook Messenger in no way is going to make you more secure on the internet.

Facebook Home or Facebook Fail?

All the buzz lately in the media seems to be about Facebook Home.  Leaks from everywhere was reporting a Facebook phone.  Zuckerberg eventually announced a less than spectacular FaceBook home instead.

Below is the "Airplane" commercial that Facebook is running.  Like most car commercials this doesn't really tell you much about what Facebook Home is.  In fact this commercial was largely useless except to perhaps convey that most people ignore the stewardess to turn off their phones.


 

So what is Facebook home?  It's an Android home screen replacement.  There are plenty of home screen replacements and I have tried a few like Go Launcher EX.  I honestly cant find a good use for them.  Most seem to cause compatibility issues with widgets or eat CPU and battery life.  Then trying to uninstall one sometimes is a complete nightmare.

Facebook home is just another home screen replacement.  The concept is that you are such a Facebook junkie that you need to have Facebook the overwhelming application on your phone.  Which is exactly what you get.  All your google apps and widgets are shoved in the closet while Zuckerberg takes the main stage on your phone.

The big features you get with Facebook Home are:

• Cover Feed - unlock your phone and see your facebook news feed
• Chat Heads and Messenger - I don't get this, it claims you can chat in the background while doing other things.  Couldnt I do this already with IMO or the standalone Facebook messenger app?
• Notifications - Facebook annoys you until you acknowledge your updates.  (I hate this feature on the web already why do I need to be annoyed on my phone too)
• App Launcher - The ability to actually doing something productive. 

And the Google Play rating for this app?  2 stars!

Why oh why would you want this on your phone.  Don't get me wrong here I like Facebook as much as the next guy but so much that I'm willing to convert my home screen to it?  Hell no. The advertisements portray this Facebook nirvana where photos of your friends and family are sending you photos and sharing all of life's great moments. 

Lets face it, what you are really going to see on your phone most of the time will be a memes of cat's, dogs, babies and Obama. 90% of the Facebook posts I see are random garbage.  In fact I've completely removed people from my friends list because of the sheer volume of repostings that take place.  The last thing I want to do is open my phone and see a picture of some kid holding a sign that says they are the 1% of americans that eat ramen noodles while standing on their head.  

When I go to make a phone call this is the last update I want to see on my home screen:

The whole idea of your home screen is to allow you to customize it and get you access to your apps.  Facebook thinks that the only app on your phone worth anything is Facebook.  I hear people say "Finally a home screen focused on people".  If this is the type of poeple you want to focus on, then have at it.  I always thought getting to your apps easily was focusing on you.  I am sure there are are a small percentage of users who love Facebook that much but I don't know a single one.  So for me, this was a serious Facebook fail.  2 stars on the Play store with over 8K reviews seems to confirm what I already knew. 

Like it or you're fired!

Interesting post in Slashdot today.  The question is should you astroturf because your company tells you to.  Astroturf-ing is essentially slang for clicking the Like button to give the appearance that something is liked even when the person clicking the button may have no knowledge of the product or service.  For example you come across a web page and it says 10,000 People like this page, be the first of your friends.  Truth be told, 9,999 of the people were employee's of the company.  The term comes from AstroTurf (The fake grass) to show it is a "Fake Grassroots" movement.

The moral question here is if this is wrong.  One would think that if you support the company you work for you would do this simply to help the company.  Company does better, you get a pay raise it all works out for everyone right?  When however does this slip over the edge into unethical.  What if a condition of your employment is to "Use your personal social media accounts to endorse company products".  This comes right after Legislation to prevent disclosure of social media passwords hit the news.

Is this really anything new though?  Companies have been persuading people to support them for years.  US Car manufacturers don't want you driving a Toyota to work, Coke doesn't want you drinking Pepsi while driving the delivery vehicle.  It's clear this has been going on for some time however social media has a significantly larger impact.  Having 300 Facebook friends has far more impact than having a dozen or so friends that even know what car you drive.

I can say I have actually been in this position.  I've had one of my employers ask me to join and like particular things in my social network.  Given the size of the companies I have worked for though I am just a drop in the ocean and not on the radar.  On the other hand however, a smaller company of lets say 80 people might know you more intimately and can easily check for compliance.  The question is what is the punishment for non-compliance?  Can they fire you?  Absolutely.  Most companies are at-will employers which means they can fire you if they don't like your Twitter handle.  Extreme?  Maybe.

I think the next few years are going to be very interesting to watch social media and employers.  The more employers start to use social media and the more people that are involved in social media the more people are going to be coerced into towing the company line.  I think we're going to see the government and human rights activists involved in the issue.  The question is how far will employers push this before the legislators have to get involved.