In early May, many people were notified by Facebook (via email or with a notificationimage below) that “soon Friends in the Vicinity, weather alerts, location history and background location will no longer be available”.
It means the social network will it stop tracking our position in the real world? No: it simply means that it will stop doing this for these specific functions.
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Friends in the Vicinanze, introduced in 2014, allowed members to share their location in real time with friends (and to see theirs): knowing that a person was within walking distance, you could perhaps decide to meet them live. Over time, others have introduced similar features (for example: Snapchat with Snap Map, Apple with Find My Friends) and the success of Friends Nearby has waned. That would be why Facebook has chosen not to support it anymore: as explained by 9to5MacMeta would have decided to abandon these features because they are “little used” and little appreciated.
It is possible, but the company might also Mark Zuckerberg has decided to go a little further and prevent any criticism, accusations, investigations by States (especially the European Union), which for a couple of years now have targeted the most invasive services offered by social platforms, those that have an impact on privacywhich have to do with facial recognition or precisely with the position of people in the world.
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What will happen from the end of May
Whatever the (real) reasons, the fact remains that “Friends in the Vicinity and weather alerts will no longer be available after May 31, 2022” and “the information you have shared that has been used for these experiences, including location history and background location, will no longer be collected (after May 31, 2022ed), even if you have previously enabled them “.
From Facebook they reminded subscribers that “you can access your location history and download it in Access your Information until August 1, 2022 “and above all that after that date” all information about the location history or background location that you previously shared will be deleted”.
As said at the beginning, what is important to understand is that “However, Facebook will continue to collect information on the position for other experiences “: the opposite would have been strange, given that these data are among the main tools used by social networks to profile people, understand their tastes and anticipate their desires. And also give us the feeling that our phones are listening to us and spying.