Facebook scoffs at claims it’s reading text messages

British newspaper, the Sunday Times, published a story today claiming that Facebook was reading user’s text messages via permissions built into the smartphone app. The publication went on to further accuse the social network giant of foul play be claiming that Facebook admitted to doing so in the name of research so it could develop its own messaging service.

Facebook wasted no time putting the kibosh on this story by writing a letter to Business Insider. It started out by simply saying, “There is no reading of user text messages.” Facebook went on to clarify the Android Facebook app permission by saying that it has done some testing, but not with the general public. It then listed some examples of ways a SMS read/write permission can be legitimately used in an app, but would not confirm which, if any, of these features it is planning on for future releases.

Facebook summed up its explanation and resolved any questions anyone might have on Facebook’s stance on the Sunday Time’s article by saying, “the Sunday Times is completely wrong when it says Facebook is reading people's SMS. Wrong on the terminology, and wrong on the suggestion that it has been implemented.”

source: Business Insider via Neowin