Vanity Fair’s Maya Kosodd points out the consequences of tapping or clicking through the little popups when you sign up for Facebook: these are contracts that let Facebook do everything that you’re now complaining about.
In its current iteration, Facebook’s Messenger application requests that those who download it give it permission to access incoming and outgoing call and text logs. But, as users discovered when prompted to download a copy of their personal data before permanently deleting their Facebook accounts, a certain amount of data was covertly siphoned without explicit permissions.
You may have seen some recent reports that Facebook has been logging people’s call and SMS (text) history without their permission.
This is not the case.
…
People have to expressly agree to use this feature. If, at any time, they no longer wish to use this feature they can turn it off
In other words, he’s calling you a dumb fuck again.
Here’s the screen where they trick people into giving them their call history. The contrast ratio of the silvertext is, according to WebAIM, 2:32 to 1, which fails the applicable accessibility standards for readable text.
Here you’re agreeing to “text anyone in your phone,” as far as you’re concerned, which of course you want to be able to do–and can already do without letting Facebook track your calls and messages. Not only is this fact in small print silvertext, it’s parked in an eyes-glaze-over paragraph about “continuous uploads” that uses superficially simple and approachable language to conceal what it’s really about: letting Facebook track your calls and messages.