This is a tool that Facebook doesn’t want you to know
- Tram Ho
With more than 2.96 billion monthly users (according to data from Statista Q3 2022), Facebook is holding important information of many people. This social network has your phone number and email address even if you have never shared them.
However, in an unexpected move, Meta (Facebook’s parent company) has quietly rolled out a new tool that allows people to check if the company keeps their contact information, such as phone numbers. their phone or email address, and delete and block it.
Although it has been around since May 2022, Meta never seems to make anything public about it. This tool is “hidden” quite well and can only be seen through a link in the Facebook help section.
However, the content of the help section also does not indicate that it is taking you to a security tool, but is referred to as: ” Click here if you have questions about your privacy permissions “.
Meta has “hidden” this blocker in a confusing help page
Only when you have really found this tool, will users feel that it is quite simple and not cumbersome like the way Facebook has hidden it.
Accordingly, Meta will scan the database to find your contact information. The company revealed that while you may not have signed up to use any of the core Meta services – such as the Facebook, Messenger or Instagram apps – it may still have your contact information.
For years, the company asked users to share their phone book to make finding friends easier. Of course, this data is also collected by the company, including shadow profiles – containing personal information of people who have never used Facebook.
The tool will ask if you want to check a phone number or email address that may have been uploaded by someone using Meta’s core apps, including: Facebook, Messenger or Instagram.
Meta will send a confirmation code to the phone number or email you want to check to verify that the contact is genuine
If a phone number or email address exists in Meta’s database, you can request that the company delete them and prevent the contact from being uploaded again by clicking “Confirm”
” You can ask us to confirm whether we have your phone number or email address ,” says Meta. ” If we have this data, you can ask us to remove it from the database. To prevent it from being re-uploaded to this database through someone’s contacts, we need to keep a copy of it. stars on my block list .”
Meta declined to answer questions from Insider about how the blocklist works.
Although applauding Meta for taking action in favor of privacy, Heather Burns, Professor of Cybersecurity at De Montfort University still did not forget to assess: ” The company collected data they should not have been. collected in the first place, and now they’re transferring the responsibility of deleting it to you .”
Source : Genk