Facebook Is In Trouble For Yet Another Creepy Privacy Violation

Facebook is a company built on the philosophy of “It’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission.” That has never really come off well; at best it means the company is unrelentingly obnoxious. And it looks like Facebook’s latest app permissions request may have finally gone too far for users.

Namely, Facebook is demanding the permission, found on Android versions, to take pictures and record audio with its app. The feature people are freaking out about will listen in to what you’re doing and automatically tag it with, say, the song in the background or the TV show it’s overhearing. Here’s a video of it in action:

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While this particular feature is opt-in, it’s fair to note that Facebook, for all we know, is flipping on your phone’s mic whenever it feels like. It would be far from the first time the company has decided your privacy isn’t important. Adorably, there’s an online petition to stop this feature, because Facebook is such a big believer in democracy.

It would be nice to say that this is the strangest thing Facebook wants permission to do to your phone, but that would be a blatant lie. Basically, Facebook wants as much of your data as possible, and your choices boil down to either uninstalling the app from your phone, or accepting that Mark Zuckerberg is possibly listening to your awkward hookups.

Come to think of it, if enough of us leave our phone around the most obnoxious person we know, that might solve the problem quite handily. Anybody know what Gilbert Gottfried charges?

Via Business Insider

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