Facebook may be keeping tabs on your phone call and message logs

FACEBOOK has been hit by a new scandal, after users began noticing disturbingly specific information the network had stored on them.

FACEBOOK has been keeping track of your phone activity for years.

In the latest scandal to hit the social media network, Android users who downloaded their personal Facebook archive have discovered years of data on their contacts’ numbers, the duration of their phone calls and text messages stored away.

This is not just the calls placed through the Messenger app. This is conversations made through their actual mobile phones.

Evidence of everything from your last text message to that tedious birthday call from your frumpy Aunt Brenda in 2015 may have been stored.

Downloaded my facebook data as a ZIP file

Somehow it has my entire call history with my partner's mum pic.twitter.com/CIRUguf4vD

— Dylan McKay (@dylanmckaynz) March 21, 2018

I downloaded my data and FB has a record of ALL contacts/calls/texts ON ANY MEDIUM from my phone 2015-2016.
NB. I've never imported any contacts to FB. No FB app on my phone. I do have Messenger (but the upload contacts option is and always has been DESELECTED). https://t.co/hUKDG7pr7F

— Natalie Schluter (@natschluter) March 25, 2018

Just looked through mine and ran the script he wrote. Facebook archive currently has phone numbers from people in my contacts, all my texts (some nearly 7 years old) my entire call history dating back 5 years, and skype contacts? Well this is interesting. https://t.co/405MYXS6te

— George ; (@RapidTheNerd) March 23, 2018

facebook call log history in my archive.. this is me personally and they have logs of me calling my mom, step-dad and walmart. pic.twitter.com/SwEuCyFr9Y

— decoded (@d3d0c3d) August 14, 2017

In a blog post, Facebook said the information was uploaded to secure servers and was never sold or shared with users’ friends or third-party apps.

It also stressed it does not collect the actual content of phone calls or text messages.

READ MORE: Facebook advertising reveals what network knows about you

In a statement to Ars Technica, the network pointed out that the call log was “a widely used practice to begin by uploading your phone contacts”.

“People have to expressly agree to use this feature. If, at any time, they no longer wish to use this feature they can turn it off in settings, or here for Facebook Lite users, and all previously shared call and text history shared via that app is deleted,” the company said.

Meanwhile the Federal Trade Commission has announced it will launch an investigation into the network’s privacy practices.

Mark Zuckerberg’s social media network is in trouble.

The social media giant is facing growing public outrage and sinking stocks in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

READ MORE: Facebook in the centre of data breach scandal

According to the Washington Post, Facebook stock dropped 13.5 per cent this past week after allegations a political consulting firm working for the Trump campaign hacked the data of over 50 million users without their permission.

It’s sparked a backlash of angry users deleting their accounts in protest, with the hashtag #DeleteFacebook going viral on other social media platforms.

Last week tech billionaire Elon Musk added further fuel to the fire after removing the Facebook page for two of his companies, SpaceX and Tesla.

It’s not a political statement and I didn’t do this because someone dared me to do it. Just don’t like Facebook. Gives me the willies. Sorry.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 24, 2018

WHAT’S FACEBOOK GOT ON YOU?

If you’re an Android user who has used Messenger or Facebook Lite, your call and message logs may have been stored, depending on whether or not you gave permissions for this.

You can check these logs by going to Settings ... Download My Archive. Open the downloaded folder, and click html ... contact_info.

Apple users are safe. As an iPhone user, details of my call logs did not show up, as iOS has never allowed silent access to call data.

My contact data did however reveal the phone numbers and email addresses of several people I’m not friends with on Facebook, and haven’t seen or spoken to in over a decade.

Cringeworthy email addresses I can trace back to the MSN Messenger days of Year 5, like “[e-mail]” and “[e-mail]” appeared in a long list, underneath an equally long list of mobile phone numbers.

But these contact addresses have never had any interaction with the email account I currently use to sign in to Facebook.

It didn’t worry me. But seeing the names of people I hadn’t thought about since the age of 12 felt a bit strange.

I sent Facebook’s data team a copy of the log to investigate, and a network spokesperson said it was just part of the sign-up process.

“The most important part of apps and services that help you make connections is to make it easy to find the people you want to connect with,” the Facebook spokesperson said. “So, the first time you sign in on your phone to a messaging or social app, it’s a widely used practice to begin by uploading your phone contacts.

“Contact uploading is optional. People are expressly asked if they want to give permission to upload their contacts from their phone - it’s explained right there in the app when they get started.”

The spokesperson stressed this was optional, and that users could reverse the setting at any time.

Facebook declined to comment on-the-record on why it needed access to users’ SMS metadata and call history.

@gavindfernando | [e-mail]