Facebook users discover social network has logged all their calls and texts

Facebook users have told of their shock after discovering that the social media platform has stored details of all their phone calls, contacts and text messages.

Following news of the Cambridge Analytica leak and allegations that the data firm harvested personal details from Facebook users to influence elections, people have begun to look more carefully at the information the social media giant has on them.

Many said they were alarmed after discovering that Facebook held far more data than they expected including history logs of private phone calls and texts and lists of their contacts.

The data included time and date information of calls and messages sent to friends and family.

Facebook has argued that the contact information is uploaded because the “most important” service it offers is the ability to connect people with friends.
A spokeswoman said it is a “widely-used practice” and said everyone is “expressly” asked permission when signing up to the site.

The discoveries were made amid the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The election consultancy firm is accused of using the personal information of millions of Facebook users to influence elections and referendums in the UK and US.

The firm has denied misusing the data.

Facebook offers a function where clients can download a zip file of their own information, which shows what the company is storing and includes details of friends, events, preferences and likes.It also contains information of a user’s interaction with advertising and details of which third parties have access to a person’s contact details.Dean Kirby, a reporter for The i, downloaded the data that had been stored in his name and found that it had records of hundreds of text messages and phone calls.

“A folder harmlessly entitled Contact Info caught my eye,” he wrote. “I was shocked to find it contained the metadata for several hundred text messages and phone calls I had made from my mobile phone.

“While the log records no detail of actual conversations I have had with friends and loved ones, it reveals in stark terms the ordinary details of everyday private life.

“Over several years, it seems, Facebook has quietly kept a log of how often I sent a text message to my wife and for how many minutes we chatted on the phone.

“The world’s biggest social media network even knows where I go for a haircut and how often I order a curry from my local Indian takeaway.”