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Facebook, which has always been the caretaker of our most intimate personal data, announced today a change of functionality for its Android users: users whose location sharing is activated will no longer be forced to constantly report their location to the social network.
Unlike iOS, which offers the ability to transmit location data to specific applications only when they are used, Android is binary. It sends this information to certain applications or not. And do not be surprised that some Facebook features require location services to work properly.
"If you enabled this setting, two things were happening: you shared your location when you did not use the app and allowed Facebook to store a history of your specific locations," reads the press release. today. "With this update, you'll have a specific way to choose whether to share your location or not when you're not using the app." It's reassuring.
The social network, which is almost synonymous with mismanagement of user data at this point, will alert anyone who has previously enabled location history to let them know that they are being monitored, which is now slightly more optional.
Of course, Android users still can continually ping Facebook with its exact location, although there is no compelling reason to want to do so.
Clarification: This article originally claimed that users would be warned if they had enabled "location services" for Facebook, which implies that the setting has been changed to the Android level. A Facebook representative pointed out that the feature of the same name in Facebook that would have controlled this feature is called Location History. They added: "While it is true that if you had enabled authorization of location services at the Android device level, we would technically have the ability to collect location data when you do not use the Facebook application, we always had the habit of collecting only location data. this information if users have explicitly chosen to participate. This is always the case with the change we are making and we hope that the new parameter will clarify any confusion around this practice. We can only imagine that you are all less confused now.
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