Kaspersky Lab denied holding Facebook responsible for accessing users' SMS and other confidential data through its Android app.
Nine hours after sending out an email to users reporting that Facebook’s Android app wants to read your SMS and other confidential data on your smartphone, Kaspersky Lab has come out with more email saying that the firm “only commented on the technicality aspect of it.”
The antivirus software company had earlier sent out an email giving out information on the latest update of the Android app of Facebook. The company had written in an email:
“Buried within the latest update for Facebook’s Android app is a feature that is causing growing concern among some users. In the App permissions menu, the site asks for access to ‘Read your text messages (SMS and MMS)’, and to ‘Add or modify calendar events and send email to guests without owners’ knowledge.’
According to Facebook’s official app permission page, an example of when Facebook requires access to text messages is when connecting phone numbers to an account. ‘If you add a phone number to your account,’ explained Facebook, ‘This allows us to confirm your phone number automatically by finding the confirmation code that we send via text message.’”
The email further quotes David Emm, Global Research & Analysis Team (GReAT), Principal Security Researcher, Kaspersky Lab as saying, “It’s up to you, of course, to decide if you’re happy to allow Facebook to read your messages. As a final note, we’d urge people to carefully check the permissions requested by any app when you first install it.” adding that that it was good to see Facebook providing two-factor authentication.
The company after seeing that the story was getting viral, came out with another clarification email saying:
“On behalf of Kaspersky Lab, we would like to clarify that we are not the source of the news, but have only commented on the technical aspect. This email was sent out to media at large hoping that we will get queries & would respond to it accordingly. Kaspersky Lab would thus like to clarify their position and state that they are not holding Facebook responsible for this in any manner & are only commenting on the news that has already been published.”
Source: Indian Express