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It’s the app you love to hate. How, exactly, should you handle the Facebook app? Should you download it and cross your fingers that it doesn’t negatively impact your phone? Or avoid it altogether? We spoke with Digital Security Expert Chris Parker, who specializes in online safety and privacy and is the host of the Easy Prey podcast and runs WhatIsMyIPAddress.com so that we could get to the bottom of why the most popular social media app is still a controversial one — and why you should never download Facebook to your phone.
The reason why downloading the Facebook app to your phone isn’t a good idea has everything to do with the privacy issues that it — and the Facebook Messenger app — have had pop up over the years.
“They may be two of the most popular social networking platforms around, but using them presents a number of online security and data privacy risks that users may or may not be aware of," Parker says. “Not only are both apps battery and mobile data drainers, but they also require a significant amount of access to your phone to provide a complete service and are known for silently monitoring private usage. Their access has long been an open secret, but the sheer amount of data Facebook collects on its users might shock the average scroller.”
A look through Facebook’s Privacy Labels on Apple’s App Store highlights just how much information is collected on anyone who downloads and uses the app, including browsing history, purchases and present location, according to Parker. “Facebook has stated that these privacy labels lack space to provide proper context about how they handle consumer data and integration with other applications,” Parker says. “However, the access it demands should give all users pause for thought.”
Another “open secret” that Parker says you should keep in mind when it comes to Facebook is the transparent nature of communications on its Messenger app. “Facebook Messenger and the regular Facebook app share many of the same permissions for complete usages, from access to your location to the built-in microphone of your phone,” Parker says.“Facebook Messenger famously does not offer end-to-end encryption for its messages, immediately making it a less secure option than iMessage, Signal and even another Facebook-owned platform, Whatsapp. While it does offer this service through the ‘secret conversations’ function, Apple’s privacy warnings have laid bare the extent to which Facebook is harvesting user data through both its social media and messaging apps. If you are using one of these platforms without end-to-end encryption, your data can be mined and collected quite easily.”
In a nutshell: if you feel uneasy about giving Facebook access to your data, do not take the risk of downloading their apps, Parker says.
“Presently, logging into Facebook through your mobile browser is a good way to avoid some of the inherent tracking involved in this app’s usage,” Parker says. “However, it will severely limit what you can do on the platform and how it integrates with other functions and apps on your smartphone. Limiting access from third-party apps and tools such as your camera to Facebook is a good way to reduce data sharing but it will limit what you can do on the platform.”
If you want to keep using Facebook, Parker suggests sticking to logging in through your browser and being incredibly selective about the data you do upload to the platform, including photographs and life events.
“Users reluctant to throw away years on the app by deleting their account should also reconsider what they use it for,” Parker says. “Making purchases directly through Facebook and updating your personal information is just allowing further unnecessary access to your data.”
