Mumbai: Facebook's announcement of the latest iteration of its service for Android smartphones, Home, has been one of the most anticipated ones in recent times. Amidst user reactions to what they thought of Home, Facebook reportedly received a few queries about privacy on Home, prompting Michael Richter and Erin Egan to pen a detailed blog post.
Right at the outset, both Richter and Egan clarify that Home "doesn't change anything related to your privacy settings on Facebook". They went on to clarify further that privacy controls of a user work in the same way with Home as they do elsewhere on Facebook.
While stating that Home is a new way to experience the social networking platform, the post makes it clear that users get to the service, unless they choose to - by downloading it from the Play store or by purchasing a phone with Home pre-installed. Implying that they do not have to use Home to access Facebook on their Android devices.
Additionally, once a user installs Home on his Android device, he doesn't necessarily have to continue using it. Users can turn off Home in their Home Settings. Alternatively, if a user likes Home, but doesn't want to show up as their lockscreen, there is an option for that too.
Importantly, the post goes on to add that Home collects information when users interact with the service, i.e. when they like or comment on a post, send a message. Home may also collect other details about how a user uses it. The post explains this by stating that Facebook has a list of apps that a user has in the Home app launcher.
As for devices that come preinstalled with Home, the service can display notifications from apps on the phone. Facebook explains that since these notifications appear in Home, they collect information about the notifications, like which app is generating them, and not the content of the notification. Facebook confirmed that it removes identifying information from this data after 90 days.
As far as the service's location collecting abilities go, Facebook clarifies that it does not use the location any differently from the Facebook app that users already have on their Android phones. Importantly, it is possible to control the location permission in the phone's settings.
The HTC First will be the first phone to run Facebook Home out of the box.
The post also answers a question on how Home treats information about what users do in non-Facebook applications. Turns out, Home doesn't collect information about user activity within non-Facebook applications. Home, according to the post only views how a user interacts with Home itself. It explains it thus, "We store this information in identifiable form for 90 days and use it to provide the service and improve how it works." That apart, there are some apps that are Facebook-enabled, i.e. the ones that allow users to share the within-the-app activity on Facebook.
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