[aktetasch]

Hi, I just discovered, that my Z10 device marks people in my contact list, who might be invited to bbm. This happens, although I never subscribed to bbm and the possibiliy to search for additional contact details within any kind of "cloud" was disabled the whole time (settings menu in "contacts"). This was explicitly checked before the contact database was populated. So whats up here? Am I missing the point or is my data used by BlackBerry without my explicit permission? Is my disapointment justified or was it my fault?

[Chanlion]

I know Facebook Collects data such as BBM Pins. Who has them and such. Maybe it could be getting them from there.
But it shouldn't be surprising, FB collects data on everything. And I literally mean everything. If you're logged on while browse on a PC, FB tracks sites you visit too. On almost the same note, Google too. It's not hard now for any company or service to pull up information on you.

[aktetasch]

I have no facebook account and obviously BlackBerry took my contact list to compare it with it's subscribers. This is not ok in my opinion since I was not informed about that and did everything to prevent this kind of behaviour. Especially I never activated the program in question (bbm)! I thought BlackBerry had a more transparent policy than apple, google, facebook, etc..

[Jerry A]

I have no facebook account and obviously BlackBerry took my contact list to compare it with it's subscribers. This is not ok in my opinion since I was not informed about that and did everything to prevent this kind of behaviour. Especially I never activated the program in question (bbm)! I thought BlackBerry had a more transparent policy than apple, google, facebook, etc..

Their policy is the same as everyone elses's. A long, obtuse TOS that gives them a lot of your data.

Most people click "Accept" without reading what they've given away.

Then again, in this day and age, this level of access is the bare minimum for using most technology (BlackBerry included). See how far one gets by clicking "Decline".

[aktetasch]

Maybe I was wrong thinking, that security and integrity is BlackBerry's most important asset.

[Stomps01]

Twitter constantly puts my Twitter contacts in my address book. I uncheck the permission they disappear then two days later they are back. Rinse, repeat. This has happened at least a dozen times for me. Facebook did the same when I had it installed. That is why I deleted it. I'm thinking Twitter will be the next thing to go. it's not like I can't live without it. Nothing like apps giving themselves permission to access your contact list....

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[vrud]

How does it know what contacts can be invited to bbm? I don?t understand the algorithm. If they match by email then it most likely a failure because people don't use primary email as bbid.

OP, are all your contacts marked for BBM?

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[uzz21]

Check settings for your address book - there's check mark for that.

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[Richard Buckley]

Facebook will do it, but so will LinkedIn. I have a BBM contact with a BBM invite button because Facebook and LinkedIn have old PINS and no way to delete them on the handset. I wouldn't be surprised if Foursquare and others did the same.

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[vrud]

I'm not the op but thanks for the settings pointer. It is cleared on my device and I don't remember changing it manually.

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[Tre Lawrence]

Their policy is the same as everyone elses's. A long, obtuse TOS that gives them a lot of your data.

Most people click "Accept" without reading what they've given away.

Then again, in this day and age, this level of access is the bare minimum for using most technology (BlackBerry included). See how far one gets by clicking "Decline".

Pretty much. It is in the TOS... the right to use the data as well, IIRC.

[Stomps01]

I'm not the op but thanks for the settings pointer. It is cleared on my device and I don't remember changing it manually.

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You can clear it but it changes it back without your knowledge......... happened to me many times.....

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[Chanlion]

Check if the info's coming from LinkedIn, Twitter too.

[aktetasch]

Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook were never activated. In fact, I uninstalled them before connecting to my exchange server. Also the setting in the contact app was deactivated before. So it is clearly the BlackBerry system itself. This should not have happened.

[Richard Buckley]

Hmm, just checked the cloud check box in contact settings. It's still off, as it has always been. Running 10.2.0.429

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[aktetasch]

Yes, the cloud setting is turned off, but go to the hub, pin-messages, new, click "to" and you get a list of people, who may be invited to bbm. This is definitly not ok.

[vrud]

Yes, the cloud setting is turned off, but go to the hub, pin-messages, new, click "to" and you get a list of people, who may be invited to bbm. This is definitly not ok.

I still don't get it.
The TO field should show your contacts that have PIN numbers, right?
I don't see what security flaw is here.
The same applies to email composer - it will offer people with email addresses.

[aktetasch]

Well. Once more. Everything concerning social networking apps is turned off / uninstalled. BBM was never activated. Permission to use the cloud in the contacts is/was turned off. Connection to Exchange Server was established, contacts synchronized. After that, some of my contacts got a button to be invited to bbm. Obviously these are people with blackberry handsets. The information on that is definitly not in the original contact-files on the exchange server, since I made them myself. So where does the Z10 know from? Obviously the contact list was "checked" by BlackBerry and I did not want this to happen. Got it now?

[vrud]

You should find the logic the device used to detect who can be invited to bbm. I would say it suggested everybody with an e-mail address regardless of whether the person has bbm or not.

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[George Jenkinson]

I understand the OP's concern and wonder whether BBRY automatically check email addresses in your contacts (irrespective of your permissions) against those in its BBM user database and makes recommendations?

As long as the info isn't shared (I would have thought BBRY was only communicating and searching its own databases, not running off to Fb or Twitter etc.), and it still requires you to take action, it's OK isn't it?

Is it any different in operation to a spell checker - checking your words against those it holds in its system?

[aktetasch]

George: I agree with you're idea on the checking of email addresses and you're analogy with the word checking is interesting, but the mail addresses I keep in my contact list are definitely personal information, which should be secured against uploads without permission. The worst thing in my opinion is, that special settings suggest, that this can be guaranteed, while obviously those setting are ignored by BlackBerry itself. Why should I trust them that they don't analyse the other data on my phone as well?

[Richard Buckley]

Yes, the cloud setting is turned off, but go to the hub, pin-messages, new, click "to" and you get a list of people, who may be invited to bbm. This is definitly not ok.

I can select contacts for whom I have pins which are legitimately in my contact list because they are BBM contacts, or they put their PIN in Facebook or LinkedIn, or I entered it manually. All have legitimate reason for the device to know they could be invited to be BBM contacts.

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[Richard Buckley]

The other option in all of this is that those contacts use the cloud feature to find people in their contact list that have a BlackBerry. Having informed Alice that her contact Bob can be invited to BBM, it is a simple matter to inform Bob that he can invite Alice. This does not require access to Bob's data, just the inference that if Alice knows Bob, Bob probably knows Alice. If Bob has no contact for Alice, the device could simply discard the PIN.

The power of meta data.

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[Stomps01]

Just checked and good ol Twitter once again allowed itself to put my Twitter contacts in my phone contact list. Wtf is up with that anyway?

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