How to prevent Facebook from collecting your message and call information

Last week the Cambridge Analytica and Facebook scandal broke out. Today we learned that during all this time, Mark Zuckerberg's social network has been collecting our message and call information,without most of us being too aware of it .

A good way to find out what information Facebook has stored about us is by downloading a copy of it. It is, in case you did not know, a gesture that you can easily perform as a user.The formula that some users used after discovering Cambridge Analytica to find out what personal data Facebook could have let slip

The surprise they found was huge, because some of the data included in the document were calls and messages made through their phone. It seems that the Facebook Messenger and Messenger Lite applications (a lighter version that serves exactly the same purpose) have been storing this information since October of last year

How to deny permissions to Facebook Messenger

The quickest way to make sure that Facebook Messenger doesn't access information about your messages or your contacts is to go to Settings > Applications > MessengerAccess the Permissions section and make sure that there are no authorized permissions. Our recommendation is that you turn off all the options, but specifically make sure that the permissions linked to SMS and Phone are turned off.

You can also delete and install the app again

1. Another option is to uninstall Facebook Messenger from scratch. To get started, make a long press on the Facebook Messenger icon. Choose the Uninstall option.

If you often use Facebook Messenger, you will have no choice but to reinstall the application But the truth is that if you don't send messages through this tool, the most sensible thing to do is to do without it. On the one hand, you will save possible tracking and on the other, you will gain space.

3. To install it again you will have to access Messenger for Android, which is the direct link to the download through the Play Store.

4. When you start the application again, don't forget to reject the request to access the call log and message log. In principle, Facebook will not store your data and you will not have any major problems.

The explanations of Facebook

The company also ensures that the collection of this data has only been done with the prior consent of the user. Indeed, in one of the configuration screens of these applications access was requested to the phone's contact list to improve the experience and explained that the application would also obtain access to the metadata of calls made and messages sent.

The screen, in any case, only gave the user three options: accept the conditions, read more information about them or choose "not now" , an option that repeated the same warning after a while.

“We released this feature for Android users a couple of years ago. Contact importers are quite common among social apps and services as a way to more easily find the people you want to connect with.This was first introduced in Messenger in 2015, and then offered as an option in Facebook Lite, a lightweight version of Facebook for Android,” the company says.

How to download your information from Facebook

This is an option that you have available from the section General account settings > Download a copy of your information It is at the bottom and it is a management that you can do both from your mobile, through the Facebook application, and from your desktop.

You will have to enter your password and then click on the button Create my file. When the file is ready, you will receive an email message and you can download it to do the pertinent checks.