At the same time, when Facebook’s ads appeared over regretting the Cambridge Analytica scandal in US and British newspapers, the social media giant now faces new allegations about gathering phone numbers and text messages from Android devices.
According to Ars Technica website, the users who checked information collected by Facebook found that it had years of contact names, telephone numbers, call lengths and text messages.
On March 25, Facebook said that the information is uploaded to safe servers and comes only from Android users who choose to permit it. The information isn’t sold or shared with users' friends or outside applications rather it is utilized “to improve people's experience across Facebook'' by associating with others.
Additionally, a website posting the company stated that the Facebook utilizes the information to rank contacts in Messenger so they are easier to locate, and to recommend people to call.
The users get the option to permit information gathering at the time of sign up for Messenger or Facebook Lite, the Facebook posting said, “If you chose to turn this feature on, we will begin to continuously log this information."
The information gathering can be turned off in a user's settings, and all previously gathered call and text history shared on the app will be erased, Facebook said. This element was first introduced on Facebook Messenger in 2015 and included later on Facebook Lite.
Reports of information gathering surfaced as Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook published ads in numerous U.S. and British Sunday newspapers to apologize for the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The ads articulated that the social media platform doesn’t deserve to hold personal information if it can't ensure its protection.
As per the ads, a quiz application developed by a Cambridge University researcher leaked information related to millions of people four years ago. Zuckerberg said this was a “breach of trust”' and that Facebook is setting up preventive measures to ensure that it doesn't happen again.
The ads were published in The New York Times and The Washington Post in the U.S., and The Sunday Times and The Sunday Telegraph in the United Kingdom.
As indicated by the ads, Facebook is restraining the information applications received when users sign in. Also, it is scrutinizing every application that had right to use large amounts of information. “We expect there are others. And when we find them, we will ban them and tell everyone affected,'' the ads stated.
Cambridge Analytica purchased the information from a researcher who paid 270,000 Facebook users to complete a psychological profile quiz back in 2014. But the quiz also gathered information of their friends, consequently affecting 50 million people altogether.
Amid the 2016 election, the Trump campaign paid $6 million to the firm, even though it has since distanced itself from Cambridge.