Facebook is bleeding users , with external researchers estimating that the societal web lost2.8 million US users under 25last year . Those loss have prompted Facebook to get more strong-growing in its effort to win users back — and the company has start up using security prompting to further user to log into their accounts .
Sometimes , Facebook will send e-mail to users warning them that they ’re having problem log into their accounts , Bloomberg reportedlast calendar month . “ Just chatter the button below and we ’ll log you in . If you were n’t hear to enter , get us know , ” the emails reportedly take . Other times , Facebook will ask for a user ’s phone number to arrange up two - agent authentication — then spam the numeral with apprisal texts .
So I signed up for 2 factor auth on Facebook and they used it as an opportunity to spam me notifications . Then they post my response on my wall . 🤦 ♂️pic.twitter.com/Fy44b07wNg
— Gabriel Lewis 🦆 ( @Gabriel__Lewis)February 12 , 2018
I ’ve been take these text - junk e-mail subject matter since last summertime , when I plant up a new Facebook account and turned on two - factor authentication . I created the new profile with somewhat vague intent of using it for professional design — I did n’t like the idea of message sources from my elemental Facebook account , where they could throw through pictures of my high school promenade or my young nephew . But I did n’t end up using the visibility often , and I permit it pose mostly desert for months at a clip .
At first , I only got one or two texts from Facebook per month . But as my visibility stagnated , I got more and more messages . In January , Facebook texted me six times — mostly with update about what my ex-husband was posting . This calendar month , I ’ve already get four text from Facebook . One is about a post from a former intern ; I do n’t recognise the name of one of the other “ friends ” Facebook messaged me about .
The textual matter are a particularly obnoxious form of junk e-mail , and rather of making me need to lumber into Facebook , they prompt me why I ’m forfend it . It ’s painful to see my x ’s name popping up on my headphone all the clip , and while my intern was great at her job , I ’m not vest in keeping up with her personal life . Facebook has never been great at map these kinds of relationships , and that ’s likely part of the reasonableness it’slosing users — as more and more people ratify up for the service and make connexion with each other , Facebook has n’t figured out how to prioritize updates from the mass you ’re skinny to over those from hoi polloi you have n’t spoken to in over a 10 . For a user , this means being swarmed with info you do n’t really want .
What ’s most frustrating is that Facebook has taken a surety feature like two - element hallmark — which gives user valuable protection from phishing and account coup — and perverted it into a dick for spam . It ’s a decision that prioritizes engagement over security and will teach user who are experiment with two - agent for the first meter that it ’s not deserving the hassle , finally degrading user condom . “ Abusing a security measure technology like 2FA by turning it into a marketing chance is reasonably much the most short - term clever , long - terminus dopy affair Facebook could do , ” Matthew Green , a cryptographer at Johns Hopkins University , tweeted .
When Gabriel Lewis , a software engine driver , tweetedabout replying to the schoolbook and having his response posted on his Facebook paries , I decide to try it for myself . I ’d just gotten a text from Facebook letting me know that my former boss had commented on a post .
“ pervert a security tool like 2fa to spam users is a really rotten , myopic thing to do , ” I texted back .
One second later , I got a schoolbook from my former genus Bos . “ Hey did someone break into your FB ? ” he asked . My harangue about two - component authentication had prove up as a comment on vacation photos he ’d post two calendar week ago .
I run to his page to front for the comment , but I could n’t find it . When I ask him where it was , he beam me a screenshot . “ I edit it , ” he separate me . “ It was so meanspirited ! ” I felt embarrassed and quickly went through his vacation pictures to apologetically like them all .
If you give your earphone number to Facebook for two - element authentication , you wo n’t just get an supererogatory layer of security measure and a slew of thirsty schoolbook . Facebook also uses your routine to match you up with potential friends — if anyone you cognize has upload their phone striking to Facebook , the society will match that up with your two - factor assay-mark act and suggest you in its “ People You May screw ” prick .
Fortunately , you may prefer out of Facebook ’s eternal texts . In your account , navigate to “ configurations ” and then “ Notifications . ” If you ’re using two - constituent authentication , text notifications will be on by default , but you’re able to toggle them off .
you’re able to also expend alternative methods of two - component hallmark , like a code generator app or a U2F key , to avow your identity on Facebook . These method acting are more secure than texted codes , which can be stolen if an attackerhijacks your SIM . To commute your two - ingredient method , go to your Facebook options and then sink in “ Security and Login . ” If you desire to transfer your phone number tout ensemble , Facebook will require you to use both a codification author and a U2F key .
“ We give people control over their notification , including those that touch to security features like two - factor assay-mark , ” a Facebook representative said . “ We ’re looking into this situation to see if there ’s more we can do to assist people manage their communication theory . Also , hoi polloi who sign up for two - factor authentication using a U2F security key and code generator do not require to register a phone number with Facebook . ”
Updated at 7:20 p.m. with a statement from Facebook .
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