It seems that Kaspersky lab has backtracked on its earlier statement hinting at Facebook’s intentions to read SMSes and other confidential information of people on the Android mobile phone platform. After few hours Internet security giant had to deny that it was the source of the insinuation against Facebook.
 
Soon after the internet sites were awash with the news the company had to clarify that it was not the source of the news, but have only commented on the technical aspect.
 
“On behalf of Kaspersky Lab, we would like to clarify that we are not the source of the news, but have only commented on the technical aspect. This email was sent out to media at large hoping that we will get queries & would respond to it accordingly. Kaspersky Lab would thus like to clarify their position and state that they are not holding Facebook responsible for this in any manner & are only commenting on the news that has already been published”, Kaspersky Lab.
 
Whether it was a faux- paus on the part of PR firm or something else, media organizations got the email on Monday attributed to Kaspersky Lab. It said, “Over the last few days there has been a constant scrutiny over Facebook having access to your SMS. Buried within the latest update for Facebook’s Android app is a feature that is causing growing concern among some users,”
 
There was no rebuttal from the Facebook on the issue.
 
This is not the first time that Facebook has triggered a controversy. Earlier U.S. Whistleblower Edward Snowden had said that Facebook snooping on private information to help National Security Agency of U.S. in spying at global level. This was however was refuted by Facebook.
 
The Facebook application at the time of installation on Android mobile phones seeks certain permissions and the updated version now asks users to allow it “Read your text messages (SMS or MMS)”.
 
Face book said that if the user adds a phone number to your account, this allows the company to confirm your phone number automatically by finding the confirmation code that we send via text message.
 
 “Two-factor authentication provides an extra level of security, so it’s good to see Facebook providing this option. As a final note, we’d urge people to carefully check the permissions requested by any app when you first install it,” Kaspersky Lab’s Principal Security Researcher David Emm said.