#Facebook app android

This has become clear in recent weeks with WhatsApp’s mishandling of a privacy label and data-sharing backlash that has been very well documented. We are in the realm of the frog and the scorpion. There is no balance, there are no checks or balances, its business model is so entrenched that it can’t seem to rethink the basics despite the constant backlash. On every level, however it’s judged, Facebook collects and processes too much of our data. And it’s important that we don’t allow this debate and those many complexities to cloud that in our minds. For the (literally) billions of users of Facebook apps, there is a simple, underlying truth that has become inescapable.

#Facebook app android

Reports this week even suggest Android users may get their own (watered down) version of the anti-tracking tech. EFF has dismissed the company’s campaign to defend its tracking as “laughable,” and just “one more direct attack against our privacy.” Google is much more silent on Apple’s changes-it sits both sides of the fence, after all. There is complexity underlying this debate-free-to-use services funded by access to our data, a level (or otherwise) playing field controlled by Apple, what each of those privacy labels actually means in the real world.įacebook is now testing how it might explain this to users in a convincing enough way that those users will say okay, yes, feel free to track me.

Facebook rightly assumes that most people will say no, and all those “allow Facebook to track your activity” requests will be a PR nightmare as everyone thinks about the business model underpinning “free to use” apps. Apple users will be asked by each installed app whether it’s okay to follow them around online. Now, though, AppTrackingTransparency is on different level. Privacy labels have been bad enough for Facebook-just ask WhatsApp, but there’s still an onus on users to dig for the information.