Facebook app can't be deleted from some phones, making users unhappy
(Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)
FOX NEWS - A Bloomberg report has triggered new concerns about Facebook – you can't get rid of it.
On some Samsung phones, the Facebook app can not be completely removed. That can be vexing for the growing number of erstwhile Facebook users who want nothing to do with the app anymore because of privacy concerns, hate mongering and politics.
The social networking company says not to worry: disabling the app has the same effect as deleting it, a Facebook spokesperson told Fox News. What remains is something called a “stub.” If you click on the stub, it will prompt you to download the app, Facebook said.
Some phone manufacturers and carriers preinstall the app – or simply install the stub – according to Facebook.
This issue isn’t exactly new. Samsung phone users, for example, were complaining about this on user forums starting in the spring of last year. And some discussions go back even further.
And a forum thread created in the wake of the latest news points out that preinstalled smartphone apps have been around a long time. Colloquially known as “bloatware,” preinstalled apps have been installed on Windows PCs for years.