In December, Justin McMurry, whose Twitter handle is wrote that he considered Facebook a privacy threat. “Very slimy,” Twitter user Gopinath Pandalai in Bangalore, who goes by wrote on the site in October. When Twitter’s app is loaded on a new phone by default, it wouldn’t collect any data unless a user had an account or created a new one, and opened the app and logged in, the company said.īut Facebook, which has spent the past year apologizing for security breaches and data privacy scandals, is the one drawing ire about its irrevocable presence on Samsung’s phones. and AT&T Inc., have made similar deals with app makers. Other phone makers and service providers, including LG Electronics Inc., Sony Corp., Verizon Communications Inc.
The phone also comes loaded with many Google apps such as YouTube, Google Play Music and Gmail Google is the creator of the Android software that powers the phone. list of apps built into its version of the Samsung Galaxy S9, for example, includes the social network as well as Inc. “Companies should be filing public documents on these deals, and Facebook should turn over public documents that show there is no data collection when the app is disabled.”įacebook isn’t the only company whose apps show up on smartphones by default. “It’s only recently that people have become to understand that these apps really power the spy in your pocket,” he said. He first tried to delete the Facebook app when he was setting up the device.Ĭonsumer-advocacy groups have been skeptical of such arrangements for years, according to Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy. and works in transportation, bought his Samsung phone seven months ago. Singh, who lives in the Susquehanna Valley of the eastern U.S. Facebook, the world’s largest social network, wouldn’t disclose the financial nature of the agreements, but said they’re meant to give the consumer “the best” phone experience right after opening the box.īalwinder Singh’s experience wasn’t what he would consider the best. The Menlo Park, California-based company said whether the app is deletable or not depends on various pre-install deals Facebook has made with phone manufacturers, operating systems and mobile operators around the world over the years, including Samsung. But there’s rarely communication with the consumer about the process. Many Android phone users have begun to question Samsung’s deal to sell phones with a permanent version of Facebook - and some of them are complaining on social media.Ī Facebook spokesperson said the disabled version of the app acts like it’s been deleted, so it doesn’t continue collecting data or sending information back to Facebook.
Some people have deleted their Facebook accounts in protest of the company’s lapses, while others simply want to make sure they have the option to do so. “Can they still track your information, your location, or whatever else they do? We the consumer should have say in what we want and don’t want on our products.”Ĭonsumers have become more alert about their digital rights and more vigilant about privacy in the past year, following revelations about Facebook’s information-sharing practices and regulators’ heightened scrutiny of online data collection. “It just absolutely baffles me that if I wanted to completely get rid of Facebook that it essentially would still be on my phone, which brings up more questions,” Winke said in an interview.