Facebook is discontinuing many series that tracked your real-time location including nearby friends weather alerts location history and background location due to low usage as spotted by 9 to 5 Mac.
In a notification sent to people who’ve used the attribute in the past Facebook says it will stop collecting data associated with these attributes on May 31st and will wipe any stored data on August 1st.
Facebook parent agency Meta confirmed the news while we’re disparaging some location based attributes on Facebook due to low usage people can still use location services to manage how their location information is collected and used spokesperson Emil said in an emailed statement.
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This doesn’t mean that Facebook will stop collecting location data altogether though. As stated in its note to users Facebook says it will continue collecting location information for other experiences o serve up relevant ads and location check in line with its data policy.
You can view download or delete any location data the platform saved within the settings and privacy menu. Otherwise Facebook will mechanically delete any stored data related to its disconnected services on August 1st.
Given that Facebook doesn’t have the keeping users record when it comes to keeping users data secure it’s actually more of a relief that Facebook is getting rid of these location based attributes.
Facebook started letting users on android turn off background location tracking in 2019 following a report that exposed face book tracked users locations if they made a believable threat.
