In a tweet by iOS developer Noah Evans, he showed exactly how much information and permissions the Facebook app on iOS requires from its users, and it is a shocking amount. To be fair, we’re sure that many people are already aware that Facebook collects information about us, but these labels are quite the eye-opener.
This isn’t even a joke Tweet. Seriously. https://t.co/FLnBzjGML8 pic.twitter.com/B00jtQKVzR
— Noah Evans (@ThisIsNoahEvans) December 15, 2020
That being said, these labels don’t really do much other than making users aware of what an app does. In the end, it boils down to our choice as to whether or not we want to continue using the app. In the case of Facebook, it seems that short of actually deleting the app and your Facebook account, there’s really not much we can do about it.
Like we said, these app privacy labels are now a requirement for new apps when they are submitted. Existing apps do not have to include it, but if they want to update their apps, they will have to comply.