Facebook Messenger vs NSA

I was thinking the other day as I continue to see people freak out about the standard permissions that it requires for it to function...why does everyone freak out about Facebook permissions, but nobody cares that the NSA can and probably does listen in to your calls, your emails, your texts, track your location, and even use your phone while it's "off", and all without your permission or a warrant? And it's not just limited to the NSA, but even the police are spying on you...

Boundaries of freedom are crossed and obliterated by your own government. Facebook, which you have the personal choice of not using and have to accept the permissions and is actually bound by laws that, not being a lawyer or anything like that, I would assume prevent them from actually doing anything people think they will do. At worst, Facebook will use the data it collects for better advertisements to increase revenue. At worst, the government will take you away to a prison without charge or trial indefinitely.

Now consider what your spending your time worrying about. Included links to articles concerning NSA spying using cell phones:

• http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/12/08/cellphone-data-spying-nsa-police/3902809
• http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/06/technology/security/nsa-turn-on-phone/
• http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-tracking-cellphone-locations-worldwide-snowden-documents-show/2013/12/04/5492873a-5cf2-11e3-bc56-c6ca94801fac_story.html
• http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/31/nsa-top-secret-program-online-data

You should also remember that in this day and age, if a company as large as Facebook is in fact watching you on your phone and reading your messages without your knowledge that there is a good chance you'll know that they are doing that. For how many people they would have working on such a project, at least one of them would have the good conscience to come forward.

I've included the current permissions for Facebook Messenger and Google Hangouts app taken from Google Play. Notice how they are almost exactly the same? If you want to have issues with Facebook Messenger, then perhaps you should worry about Google as well as most messaging apps and stop using all of them. At least if they do what you seem worried they will, they asked for permission first.


Facebook Messenger Permissions:

• Identity
• find accounts on the device
• read your own contact card
• Contacts/Calendar
• read your contacts
• Location
• approximate location (network-based)
• precise location (GPS and network-based)
• SMS
• edit your text messages (SMS or MMS)
• receive text messages (SMS)
• read your text messages (SMS or MMS)
• send SMS messages
• receive text messages (MMS)
• Phone
• directly call phone numbers
• read call log
• Photos/Media/Files
• test access to protected storage
• modify or delete the contents of your USB storage
• Camera/Microphone
• take pictures and videos
• record audio
• Wi-Fi connection information
• view Wi-Fi connections
• Device ID & call information
• read phone status and identity
• Other
• receive data from Internet
• download files without notification
• run at startup
• prevent device from sleeping
• view network connections
• install shortcuts
• change your audio settings
• read Google service configuration
• draw over other apps
• full network access
• read sync settings
• control vibration
• change network connectivity

Google Hangouts Permissions:

• Identity
• find accounts on the device
• add or remove accounts
• Contacts/Calendar
• read your contacts
• modify your contacts
• Location
• approximate location (network-based)
• precise location (GPS and network-based)
• SMS
• read your text messages (SMS or MMS)
• receive text messages (SMS)
• send SMS messages
• edit your text messages (SMS or MMS)
• receive text messages (MMS)
• Phone
• directly call phone numbers
• Photos/Media/Files
• modify or delete the contents of your USB storage
• test access to protected storage
• Camera/Microphone
• take pictures and videos
• record audio
• Wi-Fi connection information
• view Wi-Fi connections
• Device ID & call information
• read phone status and identity
• Other
• receive data from Internet
• read instant messages
• Exchanges messages and receives sync notifications from Google servers.
• full network access
• control vibration
• run at startup
• use accounts on the device
• view network connections
• control Near Field Communication
• read Google service configuration
• prevent device from sleeping
• change your audio settings
• pair with Bluetooth devices
• change network connectivity
• send sticky broadcast

Are Police a bigger hazard than speeders?

As a truck driver, I see police with people pulled over every single day. Sometimes 4-5 people in a night pulled over. Occasionally they have people just stopped in the outside lane because there isn't anywhere to actually pull over (and those people are probably idiots that just stop in the road anyway). By law, people are supposed to move over a lane on the highways when driving past cop cars and emergency vehicles on the side of the road, and so everyone has to change lanes to go around them...and that's a pain during rush hour.

When traffic is heavy, it can be more difficult to change lanes, and sometimes people are not the most considerate and don't bother to leave room for that. Then you also have the looky-loos who stop paying attention to the road to try and see what's going on. And all of that become road hazards that lead to accidents that become road hazards that lead to accidents that become road hazards...and is an endless loop that ends with everyone dead. Probably not exactly though.

I'm sure anyone who has driven past these cops who have people pulled over, probably for doing 70 in a 60 or similar, knows what I'm talking about. Those people speeding down the road, in my opinion as I haven't researched, are less of a danger than the cops who have them pulled over. Generally, people are only speeding when there isn't high amounts of traffic, because when there is traffic it's really hard to speed. Does speeding really harm anyone? Probably no more than anyone else doing the speed limit. The real danger comes to the speeding vehicle and the likeliness of them surviving an accident and that should be their own decision.

The only real reason for cops to pull people over is to write tickets. Tickets don't prevent speeding or make roads safer. Tickets make money. In the end its all about coercing money from people. Police even have a quota system for writing tickets also, but that's a whole other issue...

Maybe people would be safer if cops spend less time sitting around waiting to pull people over for speeding or not wearing seat belts and actually served and protected people as their motto misleadingly suggests they do.

Facebook Messenger app IS NOT EVIL

Stop falling for headlines struggling to get attention. Yes, the permissions allow the app to use your phone to take pictures, videos, send sms, make phone calls, etc. But you know what? Every app that uses those features requires the same permissions! It's not scary. All those headlines are simply misleading, and misinforming the public simply to get more page views, likes, clicks, etc, because those things make them money. Would you care about an article that said "FB Messenger app requires standard permissions!"? Probably not.

To add some perspective here, Google, the company that is responsible for Android, has access to all the same things that these articles are warning people about. They have ALWAYS had it, because it is their Operation System that is on the phone. You log into Google to use the phone, and they store all your contacts and information. Yet, nobody bats an eye about Google having all that information. So think about that when you worry about the standard permission that an app REQUIRES to enable you to send someone a picture, a video, or other. Those permissions are named as such by Google, not Facebook or anyone else.

Facebook even explains it all themselves here: https://www.facebook.com/help/210676372433246

Religious freedom...to be assholes

It's now been 'legally' determined that companies can deny certain Healthcare benefits based on the 'religious' beliefs of those in charge thanks to Hobby Lobby. And it's bs.

I'm going to put aside the fact that I don't believe companies should be forced to provide health insurance to begin with in what is supposed to be a country full of freedom and liberty. This isn't a free country with liberties, and they do coerce companies to follow their unjust laws. Companies being forced to provide health insurance should be the issue, not the issue of what parts of it are enforced.

If companies are forced to provide the service, it shouldn't also allow companies to impose their religious beliefs on others. And this one step will further that ability as companies demand more 'religious freedom' to deny more people things, such as what I've recently read how they want to be exempt from having to hire LGBT because of religion. At what point are they exempt from providing the insurance because they don't believe in it? I've heard of a religious person not go to the hospital and instead pray about their wound or illness. And I'm sure that would have been in the news... 'Man dies praying for healing from flesh wound rather than seeking medical assistance'.

To save money, it wouldn't be long before almost every company started denying whatever they could for 'religious beliefs' if it cut costs. What's worse is that these companies make so much money that it doesn't even make sense. It's not as if they can't afford it. These people are simply assholes. Self-centered, sociopathic assholes.