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back to article Kill Facebook's creepy on-by-default Yelp 'killer' Place Tips – your guide

Facebook is rolling out Place Tips for its iOS app that tracks users' whereabouts and inserts information about nearby businesses and points of interest into their news feed. The Yelp-ish "feature" – which is turned on by default if you have location-tracking switched on – uses GPS, cell towers, and Wi-Fi to pinpoint the …

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  1. Idocrase

    Gladder than ever that the first thing to go once I root a new phone, is the facebook app. Always on, data hogging, pest of a program that drains the battery and now bugs you to go places you probably already know about and don't want to go to.

    Bad enough family pressure means I have to use the goddamn website at all. But at least you can log out of a website and it stops pestering you.

    6 0 Reply
    1. asdf
      Reply Icon

      >Gladder than ever that the first thing to go once I root a new phone, is the facebook app.

      Yep but for me its usually second as here stateside the Verizon garbage apps get the boot first. Probably because even the icons are annoying and of course they are all made system apps.

      0 0 Reply
    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      "family pressure"

      Really?

      I can't imagine a situation where having facebook would be crucial for family purposes.

      Have they not heard of email?

      1 0 Reply
      1. Teiwaz
        Reply Icon

        Re: "family pressure"

        Some people think Facebook IS email.

        3 0 Reply
        1. Captain Hogwash
          Reply Icon
          Unhappy

          Re: "family pressure"

          Some people think Facebook is THE INTERNET.

          2 0 Reply
  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Glad I have an iPhone

    So I can easily disable Facebook's ability to get location information. Has Android 5.0 finally fixed it so you don't have to agree to all the permissions at installation time and have no ability to change them later without rooting or other special mods?

    3 1 Reply
    1. adnim
      Reply Icon
      Facepalm

      Re: Glad I have an iPhone

      "Has Android 5.0 finally fixed it so you don't have to agree to all the permissions at installation"

      I dunno.... I rooted my Android and not a single app can access any part of the file system unless I allow it specifically. I have never run stock Android because stock Android or more accurately Google OS cannot be trusted.

      What does IOS send to Apple servers? Should I get rid of *MY* Android mobile and use a phone *OWNED* by Apple?

      Please get a clue before before you extol the privacy virtues of IOS ;-)

      5 3 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Glad I have an iPhone

        Apple doesn't sell out its customers like Google does because they make their money from the sale of the phone, not the sale of personal data like Google. Google has no choice because they make zero from the sale of an Android phone in terms of either hardware or Android license.

        But good on your for being proactive on cutting out Google. Unfortunately you're the 1% in that regard.

        2 5 Reply
  3. adnim
    Happy

    To opt-out

    Uninstall the Facebook app.

    6 0 Reply
  4. Graham Marsden
    Alert

    "To opt-out...

    "... go to the settings page in the app, go to locations and then find the Place Tip switch to turn it off."

    Then wait until FB decides to change its T&Cs (which you will have to agree to if you want to keep using it) to say that it has the right to unilaterally switch it back on again in a future update without needing to tell you...

    4 0 Reply
  5. Mike 16

    the app won't broadcast your location on the news feed

    Yet.

    FTFY.

    2 0 Reply
    1. Teiwaz
      Reply Icon

      Re: the app won't broadcast your location on the news feed

      That'll be the 'feature' upgrade next time round. I can just imagine the autoposts now...

      "I'm just passing by in front of Ann Summers"

      "I'm just passing by in front of Ann Summers"

      "I'm just passing by in front of Ann Summers"

      That is'nt going to look good at all on anybody's timeline, especially if you are male and your profile is marked 'single'.

      And if any school stupidly installs this and your logged passing it for a given value of frequent, or any authoritys log you passing a 'sensitive' building a couple of times in a day, your buggered really.

      3 0 Reply
  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Facebook is still a thing?

    Wow!

    And people like being tracked and having their data shared by unknown entities?

    Wow x 2 !

    1 3 Reply
  7. Neil Barnes Silver badge
    WTF?

    As an aside

    I note that when I occasionally turn on the location services on my phone (Moto G, basic install) it asks me if I want to share my location with Google.

    So far, so good.

    There's a little tick box that says 'remember this answer'... which is only valid if you say 'yes'. If you tick the 'no' box, the tick box gets grayed out.

    Because *obviously*, not sharing this information is just a momentary aberration, right?

    8 0 Reply

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