Oliver Haslam on January 11, 2019, 7:29 am

Some Samsung Phones Aren’t Letting Users Uninstall Facebook Completely

It’s not been a great twelve months for Facebook, and that looks set to spill over to some of its partners too, with Samsung coming under fire following a report by Bloomberg, which claims that some of its phones refuse to uninstall Facebook when prompted.

According to the report, some phones including the Galaxy S8 come with Facebook installed, which is not unusual. Where things start to go awry is when users try to uninstall the app, and while it is disabled and appears to have been uninstalled, that isn’t actually the case.

Facebook says that a deactivated Facebook app is as good as an uninstalled one, but given the privacy issues the company has faced recently and the general lack of trust in the service, that may not be enough to allay fears. Buyers of such phones aren’t informed of the fact that they cannot uninstall Facebook at the time of purchase, either, which may prove worrisome for those who just want no part of the Facebook circus. Previous reports have also claimed that data is sent to Facebook, via some devices, even when the user doesn’t even have a Facebook account.

This, undoubtedly, is where Apple and its iPhone have the upper hand. The iPhone does not ship with any third-party apps installed, instead leaving the user to install what they need as and when they need it. Apple is generally known to keep an uncompromising stance on privacy.

That approach is undoubtedly preferred, but if you’re stuck with a phone that doesn’t allow you to say goodbye to Facebook completely, there isn’t much you can do at this point other than to buy a new phone.

(Source: Bloomberg)