Facebook secretly killed users batteries - lawsuit

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Facebook can secretly drain its users’ cellphone batteries, a former employee contends in a lawsuit.

The practice, known as “negative testing,” allows tech companies to “surreptitiously” run down someone’s mobile juice in the name of testing features or issues such as how fast their app runs or how an image might load, according to data scientist George Hayward.

“I said to the manager, ‘This can harm somebody,’ and she said by harming a few we can help the greater masses,” said Hayward, 33, who claims in a Manhattan Federal Court lawsuit that he was fired in November for refusing to participate in negative testing.

Hayward worked on Facebook’s Messenger app, which allows users to send written messages or make phone or video calls — and is a crucial communication tool in many countries, he said.

Killing someone’s cellphone battery puts people at risk, especially “in circumstances where they need to communicate with others, including but not limited to police or other rescue workers,” according to the litigation filed against Facebook’s parent company, Meta Platforms.

The first smartphone I ever had would heat up for no reason every time it updated Facebook. I don't use Facebook. I try uninstalling it, but updates kept putting it back in. When it heat up, it was not enough to burn my hand, but just enough to make me think one of these days it would spontaneously combust.

Just root your phone and remove it - if you cant get Root access, you can still keep the the facebook app from loading at startup on iphone or Android. The mothodology is different, but it doable.

Facebook secretly killed users batteries - lawsuit