If you’ve recently installed Facebook’s new messenger app, you may want to reconsider. Besides Facebook requesting an alarming amount of permissions that give them access to your personal data, the permissions such as “run at start-up” and “prevent from sleeping” could also burn through the battery life of you phone.
The explanation of why Facebook is requesting so many permissions listed on the Facebook Messenger Help Page is a little vague. It states that, “Almost all apps need certain permissions to run on Android, and we use these permissions to run features in the app. Keep in mind that Android controls the way the permissions are named, and the way they’re named doesn’t necessarily reflect the way the Messenger app and other apps use them.” This insinuates that the permissions are set-up so that the user benefits from the permissions, but it in no way excludes Facebook from also dipping into the permissions Here’s a complete listing of Facebook Messenger permissions when you download the app. I’ve highlighted the Facebook Messenger App permissions I find particularly troublesome.
Identity
- find accounts on the device
- read your own contact card
Contacts/Calendar
- read your contacts **
Location
- approximate location (network-based)
- precise location (GPS and network-based)
SMS
- edit your text messages (SMS or MMS) **
- receive text messages (SMS)
- read your text messages (SMS or MMS)
- send SMS messages
- receive text messages (MMS)
Phone
- directly call phone numbers
- read call log **
Photos/Media/Files
- test access to protected storage **
- modify or delete the contents of your USB storage **
Camera/Microphone
- take pictures and videos
- record audio
Wi-Fi connection information
- view Wi-Fi connections
Device ID & call information
- read phone status and identity
Other
- receive data from Internet
- download files without notification **
- run at startup **
- prevent device from sleeping **
- view network connections
- install shortcuts
- change your audio settings
- read Google service configuration
- draw over other apps
- full network access
- read sync settings
- control vibration
- change network connectivity
and the kicker: Updates to Facebook Messenger may automatically add additional capabilities within each group.