Afraid of facebook!

cormie

Hey folks,
I've held off putting facebook on my smart phone since I've had one for the last however many years, the main reason being that I don't want it to clog up on my phone with crap. I've started using it more recently for organising various things so find myself logging on via the web browser but this can be a bit tedious. I'm thinking I might install the app but only if I know it's not going to interfere with anything else on the phone and can just work independently of itself. I don't want any contacts being mixed between the facebook app and my dialer or any other contact storage location. I'd just like it to work completely independent of the rest of the phone and not add any crap anywhere on the phone.

Is this possible or is it inevitable that it will implement itself and mould in to the rest of the phone?

Any feedback appreciated!

gbob

Started using facebook back when it had a "the" prefix and haven't used it much since then, in fact completely deleted my account twice cause I find it too invasive. But I digress, yes you can separate your contacts displayed on the phone by opening the contacts app, menu, contacts to display, and selecting or deselecting as required. And, AFAIK the facebook app doesn't interfere or interact with any other apps unless you grant access, for example some apps may ask "do you want to share/post to facebook, say no and you should be fine, hope this helps.

MonkstownHoop

You should be afraid of Facebook, its probably under your bed

peckerhead

I removed Facebook because it was slowing my phone down so much.

My mood improved considerably, along with my health, my social life and my general enjoyment of pretty much everything.

Best upgrade ever.

J_E

Don't install the app...it isn't much different from the touch browser version.

To be honest, Facebook today is a sinkhole best avoided. I have a placeholder acc so my close circle of friends don't whinge that I'm out of touch with the world (they post pretty much all of their news there) but don't really have any interest in using it.

Anyway, if you don't want it to infiltrate your contacts, just make sure Sync is off and never activated. If you're rooted, you can use a set permissions app to sandbox it from the rest of the phone in theory. I don't know how stable this would be, some apps really don't like when they're restricted.

cormie

Wow, the response here has been a lot more negative towards facebook than I thought it would be. I guess I'll just keep using it through the browser so to avoid any unwanted annoyances, thanks for the replies.

ideaburst

Puzzled by the paranoia...!

If you install the Facebook app, it's not going to start jumping on your other apps or contact lists! It's the app version of the website, it's not going to do anything other than load Facebook the same way it would on your web browser.

timetogo

Got rid of it from my phone too. I started getting notifications in the notifications area. Whenever I turned this option off it seemed to get re-enabled whenever Facebook updated. So I got rid of it. Don't miss it.

lil_lisa

Not true.

I'm holding off on updating. The latest updates (although it may be a few months old now) wants access to my contacts list. Facebook plans to fully integrate with your contacts and phone. Just like hangouts. Facebook wants you to always contact people via them. Em, no thanks!

ideaburst

lil_lisa wrote: »

Not true.

I'm holding off on updating. The latest updates (although it may be a few months old now) wants access to my contacts list. Facebook plans to fully integrate with your contacts and phone. Just like hangouts. Facebook wants you to always contact people via them. Em, no thanks!

It is true, they can't access your contacts list unless you grant them access! When you download these apps you are asked whether you want them to have access to certain data, and you can always just decline their request when prompted.

lil_lisa

In order to update/install the app you have to give it permission, if you decline it you can't update/install. Giving this permission will allow them to fully integrate with your contacts list. Meaning, without any further warning you could see your entire contact list mixed in with your facebook friends list within the app. They don't have to give you any other warning.

IrishStuff09

Permissions are a bit worrying..

cormie

Thanks everyone, I think I'll leave it, I didn't even consider the notification annoyances either. Web browser version might be a little tedious but considering the very rare usage it gets, it would certainly be a lot less tedious than having to put up with any ****e the app brings with it

The_B_Man

FYI, the app can in theory read all your contacts.
The purpose of it is to integrate with their "launcher" app that replaces your home screen and basically turns it into a "Facebook phone", so it needs the same permissions as a standard launcher.

However, if you just have the app and not the launcher, I don't know if they're reading your contacts or not. Knowing them, they probably are. I'd be curious as to what the downsides are though. They already know who your friends are on Facebook, its hardly a big deal if they know who's in your phone contacts too. Although, that might sound a bit naive...

cormie

It's not even really that I'm worried about them knowing what numbers are on my phone, although there should be no reason for them to know this, but more that I don't want hassle of my facebook contacts appearing anywhere other than on facebook. I've been convinced enough already to just stick with the browser anyway

The_B_Man

Just a final point on that.
I have my FB app synced to my phone. This is so peoples contact pictures appear when I make/receive a call/text. I think it improves Android.

cormie

Hehe, that's another thing I don't want

Ste-

You could always use some of the other facebook apps ?

Idleater

cormie wrote: »

Hehe, that's another thing I don't want

Just a slant on the concerns you raise, even if one doesn't sync contacts with the FB machine, "they" in high liklihood have your details by virtue of someone else linking their contacts of which you are one.

The point being, any individual may not agree to link eg their number with a service, but it may be linked via other means.

The second point is that it is probably impossible to remain private and still have connections to social media.

I refuse to install Facebook on my phone. I dislike a lot of what they are trying to do, which has been covered, but like that you can sync your contacts with it. To do this, I download separate apps that communicate to Facebook for me, without having to install the app itself.