Kaspersky stepback with Facebook SMS Claims

Kaspersky is backpedaled on its earlier statements wherein it claimed that Facebook was intentionally reading users’ SMS and other confidential information. In an emailed statement to various media outlets, Kaspersky denied being the source of insinuation against Facebook.

Kaspersky clarified that it wasn’t the source of the news and that it only intended to comment on the technical aspects of the social networking giant’s Android app’s permissions.

The security company had said yesterday that Facebook’s Android app was under scrutiny over the permissions it was requesting specifically the one related to SMS. “Buried within the latest update for Facebook’s Android app is a feature that is causing growing concern among some users”, Kaspersky had said yesterday.

Kaspersky was also apprehensive for the fact that Facebook was automatically reading the SMS to verify a user’s identity and instead could have provided a prompt to manually enter the verification code.

“The key, it seems to lie in the word ‘automatically’. Surely the app doesn’t need to do this automatically. Facebook could simply prompt me to type in the code manually. Or, at the very least, provide this option,” said Kaspersky.

Hours after the original statements were sent out to media outlets, Kaspersky sent out a clarification saying: “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.”