Facebook Admits: We Log All Your Calls and SMS History

Facebook users have been shocked to discover it stores the phone numbers of people who've never signed up to the site, along with the SMS and voice call histories of some users. But Facebook insists that users have explicitly given permission for such data storage.

The site's data storage and sharing policies came back under the spotlight with the recent Cambridge Analytica scandal, when a journalist revealed that information gathered about users and their friends for a psychological study was shared without permission for use in political ad targeting. Since then, many users have been taking advantage of a Facebook feature that lets users download a copy of all the information the site has about them.

Much of what's stored is data you'd expect such as posts the user has made, lists of their Facebook friends, photos and videos they've uploaded, and copies of messages sent through Facebook Messenger. (At the end of the article we'll explain how to do download your own user data).

Journalist's Contacts Hoovered Up

However, several users have revealed more surprising data. The BBC's Rory Cellan-Jones discovered his stored data included email and phone numbers for more than 2,500 of his contacts - including the journalist who broke the Cambridge Analytics scandal. Meanwhile a New Zealand man discovered the data included a list of telephone calls he'd made including the time, length of call and who he was calling.

In the former case, Cellan-Jones says he understands that when he set up his account he may have given permission for Facebook to check the contacts list on his phone to see if anyone he knew was already on the site. However he was shocked to discover that numbers he is adding now are still being collected by Facebook. (Source: bbc.co.uk)

Facebook: You Gave Us Permission

Meanwhile Facebook has dismissed the New Zealand man's complaints with what it's called a 'Fact Check' article. It says the phone call and text logging history are part of the system for helping users find their friends on the site. It insists that "People have to expressly agree to use this feature" and that they can change their settings to stop collection of call and text history, contact details, or both. It added that "Your information is securely stored and we do not sell this information to third parties." (Source: fb.com)

Facebook didn't explain how having a history of calls and texts would help the feature. In theory it could be a way of finding people on Facebook when you've called or texted them, but not yet added them to your phone's contacts list.

What Does Facebook Know about You? How to Download Your User Data

If you are a Facebook member you can download your user data using these steps:

1. Go to Facebook.com and login to the site.
    
2. At the top right of the page, click the Down Arrow button and select "Settings".
    
3. The "General Account Settings" page will be displayed; near the bottom, click the link that reads: "Download a copy of your Facebook data".
    
4. You will be asked to sign onto the website with your password. After that, Facebook will email you all its data (supposedly) it has about you.
    
5. When the archive is complete, Facebook will email you a link; you will need to login to Facebook again and click the "Download archive" button.

What's Your Opinion?

Does any of this surprise you? Do you think users have enough information to give informed consent for such data collection? Would you like to see any tighter regulations on such activity, for example by only allowing sites to collect data they can prove is necessary to provide their services?