Facebook scraped call, text message data for years from Android phones

Re:Facebook scraped call, text message data for years from A... by Sylos on Sunday March 25, 2018 @01:37AM (#16670927)

Applying this to contacts, too, would also make it somewhat less impossible to use WhatsApp and similar messengers legally.

If you don't know why it's illegal: WhatsApp uploads all of your contacts to their server. Granted that their ToS are not themselves ruled illegal at some point, it is on you to get a written permission from all of your contacts that they are okay with you uploading their data to WhatsApp's servers.

So, unless you block access to all of your contacts or actually ask every single one of your contacts for written permission, it's illegal. With selective contact access, you could at least attempt to only grant access to contacts that you actually did get written permission from, or I don't know, of which you know for sure that they are using WhatsApp, too.

And yes, I do love the thought of hitting on someone in a bar and then pulling out this massive form sheet to ask for their written permission, just so you can ask for their number afterwards.

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Re:Facebook scraped call, text message data for years from A... by thaumasiotes on Sunday March 25, 2018 @03:20AM (#16671153)

What legal system are you thinking of? I don't really see myself getting in legal trouble for revealing someone's contact information to a third party. It's a pretty normal thing to do. If I knew your phone number, and somebody else asked me for it, what's stopping me from telling them?

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Re:Facebook scraped call, text message data for years from A... by dorgo on Sunday March 25, 2018 @03:46AM (#16671212)

Germany has privacy protection laws and a privacy protection officer warned that 99% of WhatsApp users act illegal by not asking their contacts for permission before giving WhatsApp access to their contact information.

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Re:Facebook scraped call, text message data for years from A... by thaumasiotes on Sunday March 25, 2018 @04:11AM (#16671271)

If I give your phone number to some guy I met in a bar, is that still fine?

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Re:Facebook scraped call, text message data for years from A... by Sylos on Sunday March 25, 2018 @04:33AM (#16671329)

If I don't sue you, yeah. But if you're not sure that I won't have a problem with it, you should better ask me in advance.

In your example, this sounds silly, but it's just not categorically different from examples where it doesn't, like say someone who stalks me asks you for my phone number, or a scam caller does.

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Re:Facebook scraped call, text message data for years from A... by harry8 on Sunday March 25, 2018 @09:53AM (#16672164)

is some person my psycho, violent ex?

Is some person a person I want to talk to?

Do you not know and are just hoping for the best without asking me?

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