Recently I’ve seen quite a few postings of the article The Insidiousness of Facebook Messenger’s Mobile App Terms of Service , claiming you should remove your Facebook Messenger because of the control the app has over your Android device. Many have suggested Telegram instead, which I’ve been using a while. “Using”, I should add, in the same sense I would use a carrier pigeon. It’s nice to have, but there aren’t many others to share the fun with.
So how bad is the Facebook app compared to others? Here’s a comparison between the permissions demanded by Facebook Messenger, Telegram and Whatsapp on Android:
| Permission | Facebook Messenger | Telegram | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retrieve running apps | No | No | Yes |
| Find accounts on the device | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Find accounts on the device | No | Yes | Yes |
| Read your own contact card | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Read your own contact card | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Read contacts | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Modify your contacts | No | Yes | Yes |
| Approximate location (network-based) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Precise location (GPS and network-based) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Edit your text messages | Yes | No | No |
| Receive text messages (SMS) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Read your text messages | Yes | No | No |
| Send SMS messages | Yes | No | Yes |
| Receive text messages (MMS) | Yes | No | No |
| Directly call phone numbers | Yes | No | Yes |
| Read call log | Yes | No | No |
| Test access to protected storage | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Modify or delete contents of your USB storage | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Take pictures and videos | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Record audio | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| View wifi connections | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Read phone status and identity | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Read sync statistics | No | No | Yes |
| Receive data from internet | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Download files without notification | Yes | No | No |
| Run at startup | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Prevent device from sleeping | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| View network connections | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Install shortcuts | Yes | No | Yes |
| Change your audio settings | Yes | No | Yes |
| Read Google service configuration | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Draw over other apps | Yes | Yes | No |
| Full network access | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Read sync settings | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Read sync statistics | No | No | Yes |
| Control vibration | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Change network connectivity | Yes | No | No |
| Toggle sync on and off | No | No | Yes |
| Use accounts on the device | No | No | Yes |
| Modify system settings | No | No | Yes |
| Uninstall shortcuts | No | No | Yes |
The permissions that have got most people worried, with visions of their phone starting to video them and record their conversations, “Take pictures and videos” and “Record audio”, are shared by all the apps. In Android’s permission system, they’re required to function. So if you want to use the chat functionality, you have to give the app these permissions. If the software is proprietary (Facebook and Whatsapp), you’ll need trust the company behind the app (Facebook owns Whatsapp as well). Telegram is open source, and therefore anyone can (and does) check the code. If you’re worried about security, you should be as concerned about what happens to your messages and data in transit, and here the best option I know of right now is Telegram, which is designed with a focus on privacy.
Now if only more people would use it…