Record audio: This permission allows you to send voice messages, make free voice calls, and send videos within Messenger.Take pictures and videos: This permission allows you to take photos and videos within the Messenger app to easily send to your friends and other contacts.Here's how Facebook says its Messenger app uses various device functions, with the bold portion the actual permission that Android requests followed by how Messenger describes its use of each function: "Keep in in mind that Android controls the way the permissions are named, and the way they're named doesn't necessarily reflect the way the Messenger app and other apps use them," Facebook said. 6 that attempts to clarify how the Messenger app will use five functions of a phone or tablet for taking photos, making calls and more. Google verified that a permissions language update occurred in May as part of an attempt to make permissions easier for users to understand.Ī perusal of the updated changes reveals that most of the new Android language for the Messenger app is considerably broader and more vague than when first described in a Huffington Post blog last December.įacebook posted a statement to users on Aug. As a result, the privacy dangers many users are concerned about aren't as easily evident in the iOS version, although some iPhone users are still concerned about privacy breaches.įacebook noted in an email to Computerworld that the Android permissions language for a wide range of apps was recently updated. While the Messenger app is basically the same app as in iOS, there are no blanket permissions laid out for iOS users as there are for permissions at the start-up of the Android-based Messenger app. The truth of how the Messenger app uses a device's phone and camera is apparently far less insidious than many have thought, according to Facebook.įacebook said that the "permissions" language used in the Google Play Store to describe how Messenger functions with a user's phone or camera was written by Android officials, not Facebook, to describe a large array of apps, not just Messenger. On Thursday, a user identified as G Kay wrote in the iOS App Store about the app: "What Facebook can do through this app scares the crap out of me.They can access my microphone, camera and contacts.'' "Beware!" wrote user Rasikh J on Saturday in a review of the app in the Google Play store. (Image: Screenshot)Ĭoncerned users claim the app could give Facebook the use of their phones and tablets to take photos and to make phone calls without their specific approval. A permissions page when loading the Messenger app on a Galaxy S5 Sport smartphone includes a popup warning that the app is allowed to use the camera at any time without the user's confirmation. Other users were concerned that the Messenger app stinks of Orwellian 1984-style invasions of privacy. Some users complained about having to use the separate app to send messages, photos or videos to their friends. Facebook ignited a flood of criticism last week when it began requiring mobile users to load its Messenger app for Android and iOS separate from its basic Facebook app.
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