A former Meta employee working as a data scientist revealed that Facebook apps deliberately drain iPhone and Android batteries to determine how low battery power affects app performance.
The report implies that the said feature is being used on users’ phones without their permission or knowledge. The report from the New York Post reads:
Facebook can secretly drain its users’ cellphone batteries, a former employee contends in a lawsuit.
The practice, known as “negative testing,” allows tech companies to “surreptitiously” run down someone’s mobile juice in the name of testing features or issues such as how fast their app runs or how an image might load, according to data scientist George Hayward.
“I said to the manager, ‘This can harm somebody,’ and she said by harming a few we can help the greater masses,” said Hayward, 33, who claims in a Manhattan Federal Court lawsuit that he was fired in November for refusing to participate in negative testing.
Hayward explained that he refused due to the potential risk caused by draining the battery of a user, which may need it for emergencies like making 911 calls, or using their device’s Crash Detection and Fall Detection.
Related
- How to log out Facebook remotely using a different device
- Why is my iPhone battery health draining fast?
- How to backup/download all your Facebook photos and videos
He added that Facebook might be even using the battery-draining feature on phones used by first responders. The move is “clearly illegal” said Dan Kaiser, Hayward’s lawyer.
Facebook is yet to make a statement regarding the issue.
Hindi na ngayon kasi nade-detect na ng android (not sure sa ios) kung anong app ang malakas mag drain ng battery at ino-notify ka nya.
not really, they still drain your phone’s battery. There is a massive difference between Messenger lite and fat Messenger on battery life. It’s just that people are willing to have a worse battery to install the more convenient Messenger app than the lite apps or web version in exchange of everything Facebook wants to do on the phone. It’s as if they on the phone now than you do as you don’t consent them doing these background tasks anyway and just proves that you are more the product than the user.