Privacy concerned users can use wrappers around the Facebook website, such as the open source "Tinfoil for Facebook" or "Face Slim" android apps, then Facebook cannot access certain things (depending on your configuration). If have to use a proprietary facebook app, then likely cannot achieve the same degree of privacy protections.
I'm sorry. I still don't understand what specific information Facebook can gather from them using their app that they can't from the browser. When I look in my phone settings for the Messenger app, I can switch off it's ability to look at locations, photos, etc.
Tinfoil appears to be an app to specifically work around the fact that browsers can leak more information than the app would.
well the facebook app is always on, even in background. It is probably reading every keystroke and touch action, and even every pause between actions. But when accessing the basic browser site inside tinfoil, they can only get http actions you actually transmit, such as likes, login times, page loads, etc.
Of course not other apps. I'm talking about the facebook app itself. When you start typing text, it is presumably reading the delay between every keystroke and all your deletes. However, on the non-js html site, it only can get the text after you submit.
I don't put any Facebook software on my phone, including Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Facebook Messenger. The reason they are forcing people to use Facebook Messenger is to force people who only use the website to install software that tracks you.
