I. The 'Time Stamp' on iPhone's Mobile App, provides without your
consent information to your fb friends about your last online facebook connection ('Last Active') when accessing facebook from a mobile device
II. 'Seen' function, in pm correspondance with your friends on facebook
- The report on facebook for violation of my private life, caused by the functions 'Time Stamp' - 'Last Active', that appears on my
friends' iphone facebook mobile app.
- Uninstallation of facebook mobile app from iPhone
here and from Android here, due to serious infringement of my privacy.
- The emerging legal issues will be submitted for
judgement to the competent Bodies and Courts, in case that Facebook does not
suggest an explicit way to disable the above functions.
Personal Data is any information that relate to any
individual's private, professional or public life. Any bit of information could
be characterised as personal data: a name, a picture, an email address, bank
account specifications, posts in social networks, medical information or your
computer's IP address. The EU Charter for Fundamental Rights states that
everyone has the right to the protection of personal data concerning him or her
in all aspects of his or her life: at home, at work, as a patient, in a police
station or on the Internet.
According to EU Law, personal data can be legally
collected only under strict conditions, for a legitimate basis laid down by
law. Furthermore, persons or organizations collecting and handling your
personal data are bound to protect it form misuse and respect certain rights of
the subjects of these data, which are guaranteed by EU Law.
Social Networks like facebook constitute a useful tool
for keeping in touch with friends, relatives and colleagues, but encompass the
danger of having your personal information, your photos and your comments being
published quite further than what you would have imagined. In some cases, this
can have consequences on the financial status, reputation and psychological
state of individuals.
I. I have
recently discovered, to my amazement, that in my iPhone Facebook Mobile app, in
the field 'chat' (emerges if one drags the screen to the left), beside the
profil pic and name of some of my friends, there was a strange icon depicting a
cell phone and right next to it, there was a time stamp of their last
connection on facebook!!! This time stamp takes the form of "2 min
ago", "10 hours ago", "2 days ago"etc [screenshot
here]. Immediately I called my sister (we're facebook friends) and asked her if
she sees the same time stamp on her iPhone beside my name. She confirmed my
suspicions [screenshot here].
After applying trial and error we found out that the
time stamp appears a) even if someone is not available to chat on line b) even
if someone has not liked or commented on a post etc (i.e. for the registation
of your 'last active' time stamp it's enough to review content through the
app!!!) and c) even if someone has not logged in Facebook by using his username
and password. It also seems that, while on the one hand, this time stamp is not
visible in Facebook mobile app for Android devices, nevertheless, if someone
logs in to Facebook through the app using an Android device then the stamp in
the Iphone is automatically updated. Finally, logging in to facebook from web
(i.e. Chrome, IE, Firefox) does not register.
By keeping track of my friends' time stamp, I saw
lawyers who would normally be in court litigating by 9 a.m. and then run
through their day, logging in Facebook in 4 a.m., married men who should be in
bed with their wives logging in every night from 2 to 4 a.m., newly married
friend couples logging in and out in 30 min intervals, a lawyer friend whom I
called and told me he was on a business appointment logging in a minute after
we hung up and a teacher logging in when she was supposed to be in class teaching
children... This way, these people lost all credibility from my perspective.
After extensive googling on how to turn this function
off, I was surprised to find out that all views converged to the conclusion
that this function cannot be disabled by the user. In my quest for answers, and
after exhausting Facebook Help Center's content, I entered the facebook user
community, where users are trying to obtain a responsible answer to their
question on "how to turn off the 'last active' function". Up until now,
it seems that no satisfactory answer is being given (see the question here - logging
in Facebook required).
Consequently, I sent Facebook a report for breach of
my privacy, while at the same time requesting for a solid suggestion on how I
could turn this 'last active' time stamp off. The report is published here and
the confirmation of reception by Facebook here. After that, not being able to tolarate this
straightforward and unprecedented infringement of my privacy, I went on to
uninstall the app from all my mobile devices (relevant videos for iPhone here
and Android here).
This uninstallment, it is obvious, constitutes a ban
or an otherwise serious -coerced- limitation on my right to free internet
access. Internet access into which access to social networks is encapsulated,
is a human right according to UN Report from 16/05/2011, which means it's a
fundamental right and a fundamental freedom to which everyone is entitled.
II. The 'Seen' function, in pm correspondence with your facebook friends. The compulsion that
Facebook exercises regarding the immediacy on replying messages.
Lately Facebook introduced in personal messages that
users exchange the 'seen' feature. This
new feature allows the sender to know exactly when the recipient opened and
hence read the message. That means that opening a message and replying in an
untimely manner could be easily interpreted by the sender as a disregard on
part of the recipient, or otherwise as a lack of the recipient's attention,
that the sender is hoping to attract. The outcome of this feature, is that
users are coercively obliged to not read the message (avoid opening the message
even if they have been notified about its delivery)!!! This practice of
coercing the receiver into not reading messages creates profound distortions,
such as having the receiver knowingly ommit opening a message in the case of an
emergency, in order to avoid letting the sender that the message is read.
The following example is didactic:
My good friend Aristides sent me a message, which I
was not in any mood to open because I just had a fight with my girlfriend. The
message in the notifications' snippet looked like this. Reading the first two
lines, that is, the message did not seem important. I didn't open this message
(hence didn't read it) because I didn't want to upset Aristides, knowing that
had I opened it, Aristides would be immediately notified I read it and by
replying with considerable tardiness, this tardiness of mine could be
interpreted as transient disregard by my good friend. So, I chose not to open
the message when it arrived, and save it for a later time when I felt I could
be up to replying... But when I later on opened the message, I was surprised to
find that what Aristides wanted to tell me was "a matter of life and death"!!!
This odd situation created by the 'seen' feature, is
crystal clear when it comes to messages sent by my clients, friends, lawyers
and others for my nameday (screenshot here). I do not dare open these messages
today, because the sender will be immediately notified of the exact time I read
them!!! Not responding to wishes sent on your nameday, is - in
any case - at least rude.... On the other hand, I'd really like to read those
wishes, but I do not want to answer them at once, because I'm writing this
article. So, I'm forced to not take cognizance of these wishes and the
consequent joyous feelings, procrastinating the satisfaction for a later time,
when I'll be up to responding those messages at once!!!!!
But I do not want to let my clients and collegues see
I read their messages on Monday morning, because this way I will show that
instead of being in Court, I'm reading messages on Facebook.... This could be
interpreted as a lousy business phase though, an impression I certainly DON'T WANT
to create.... This way, I'm forced to read the messages on my free time, and
definitely not late at night (so I don't signal to everyone I'm a late sleeper,
because I've got work to do in the morning), which has a serious impact on the
management of my spare time, and, thus, the free expression of my
personality..."
Written by Thanasis Alampasis, Attorney at Law in Athens, Greece
Originally published in Greek here
Translated from Greek to English by Spyridon Adam, Attorney at Law in Athens, Greece
