Apple have started to push developers to provide “health labels” for their applications. There are many concerns around this, including whether Apple will document their applications as transparently.
However, the first updates about some messaging applications have shown up some very stark differences about who collects what information.
The smallest label is for Signal – which effectively stores nothing! This is why many groups who want or need privacy are using Signal to handle communications.
The largest, by contrast and by a VERY LONG way is Facebook Messenger. In effect, it would seem to collect any and all data that it can. WhatsApp, owned by Facebook, is a much smaller list, so would suggest that Facebook Messenger doesn’t need that huge amount of data. Given the history of Facebook with Cambridge Analytica, the collection of so much data doesn’t paint the picture of an organisation concerned with data privacy. Remember the more information that is collected the more it could leak or be used for purposes other than those we would like.
This is why GDPR asked data collectors to focus on why they collect data and to only collect the minimum they require.
For Facebook to need so much data suggests what we all really know, which is that they are wanting to know as much as they can about any and all of us.
I’m an avid science-fiction fan and adore Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series. These are based on the concept of psychohistory, which attempts to determine what humankind will do using a theory – psychohistory – to predict what mass groups will do in the future.
What I see is Facebook trying to emulate that concept. What is a challenge is that psychohistory was a fictional construct. I’m not sure Facebook got the memo that it is fictional and believe they can predict what the masses will do – or worse – that they can use the materials they have gathered to influence. Now that latter aspect is what has many concerned about the long term aims of Facebook, and is what drives me to minimise what I do and how I interact with anything to do with Facebook.
I have no doubt our personal data is needed for some companies to deliver what they do, Facebook doesn’t need mine.
Nor do I trust Facebook to do the right thing with my data if they have it.