There are many issues surrounding Facebook, including the collection of your personal information from mobile devices, the sharing of data with shady third parties, and more. The site is now being accused of having the ability to stealthily drain your smartphone’s battery.
George Hayward, a former employee and data scientist, claimed to the New York Post that Facebook’s so-called “negative testing” procedures can covertly deplete your phone’s battery. A type of software testing called “negative testing” involves putting an app or piece of software through unexpected situations and behaviours to see how it responds.
“I said to the manager, ‘This can harm somebody,’ and she said by harming a few we can help the greater masses,” Hayward was quoted as saying by the outlet, adding that he was fired for refusing to participate in negative testing. The data scientist filed a lawsuit that has since been withdrawn as he is required to go to arbitration, his lawyer told the outlet.
Because he allegedly received an internal training manual titled “How to execute smart negative tests,” which included instances of negative testing, the former employee believes Facebook engaged in negative testing. Sadly, he failed to provide any instances in the document.
Companies do need to adequately test their software in a range of scenarios, thus negative testing isn’t always a contentious practise. However, if Facebook was purposefully draining users’ phone batteries as part of the practise, it sounds like Facebook seriously crossed the line.
Hayward explicitly argued that purposefully draining a user’s phone battery could endanger their life in situations where they needed to call for help. Furthermore, by making users charge their phones more frequently, this behaviour can hasten battery deterioration.
