Do you value your privacy? If so, delete Facebook.
A stark new warning for all iPhone users, Facebook has been caught “secretly” gathering possibly sensitive data for iPhone app users.
Facebook has been tracking precise locations of users through their apps for a while now without people knowing. It doesn’t matter if you turn of location services for Facebook or adjust settings in app, the only way to truly disable it is by deleting the app.
Facebook claims they are using the data to make connections between people who a user may have run into. If you spend an amount of time with someone they may show up on your suggested friends. While this feature might seem handy, it is unnecessary to be constantly tracking a user’s device, especially without disclosing this or allowing the user to disable it.
Facebook uses your iPhones accelerometer to do this, the same system that is used for tracking steps and other data on your iPhone. Facebook even knows whether you are standing, sitting, or lying down not to mention tons of other things.
Cybersecurity researchers Talal Haj and Tommy Mysk, in a statement given to Forbes, warn that “Facebook reads accelerometer data all the time. If you don’t allow Facebook access to your location, the app can still infer your exact location only by grouping you with users matching the same vibration pattern that your phone accelerometer records.”
Since no one knows what Facebook is doing with this data other than what they claim, it is recommended that you delete your app since there is still no way to disable this sensitive data from being harvested.