Facebook Wants To Read Your SMS, Confidential Info: Kaspersky
The updated Facebook application now wants to “Read calendar events plus confidential information” which it justifies as it is required to allow “the app to show your calendar availability (based on your phone’s calendar) when you’re viewing an event on Facebook”.
Facebook sends code via SMS that has to be entered when a user registers with the social media website which in a way helps the company verify the authenticity of users twice.
“Two-factor authentication provides an extra level of security, so it’s good to see Facebook providing this option ... As a final note, we’d urge people to carefully check the permissions requested by any app when you first install it,” Kaspersky Lab’s Principal Security Researcher David Emm said.
Kaspersky added the permissions also grants access to multimedia messages, for which reason is not explicitly given.
It expressed apprehension on the word ‘automatic’ used in the permission sought by Facebook.
“...the key, it seems to lie in the word ‘automatically’ Surely the app doesn’t need to do this automatically. Facebook could simply prompt me to type in the code manually. Or, at the very least, provide this option,” Kaspersky said.
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