John Paul M. Joaquin Tech 01.31.2023 05:Jan AM EST

Facebook Ex-Employee Says App Can Secretly Drain Your Smartphone’s Battery

Meta's Facebook app may be doing more than just collecting people's data for targeted ads.

A former Facebook employee and data scientist mentioned that the Facebook app could secretly drain a person's smartphone battery as part of its process of testing features.

The former employee previously sued Meta for its "illegal" practices but withdrew it due to them being unavailable to appear personally during arbitration, per the New York Post.

Facebook App Battery Drain Details

George Hayward, the former employee in question, mentioned that Facebook employs a practice known as "negative testing" to drain people's smartphone batteries if they installed Facebook's app on them.

According to the court documents he filed as part of his lawsuit against Facebook, the company allegedly gave him an internal training document titled "How to run thoughtful negative tests," which contained examples of negative testing, per Android Authority. However, Hayward didn't mention any examples featured in the document in his court files.

According to the former Facebook employee, negative testing allows tech companies to drain someone's phone battery to test features or issues such as how fast their app runs or how an image might load.

Additionally, it allows tech companies to apply unexpected behaviors and circumstances to an app or software to see how it copes.

However, Hayward found these tests to be invasive and harmful to people as it takes away people's chance to contact emergency services due to a low or dead battery. He added that this practice could accelerate battery degradation by forcing users to charge their phones more often, eroding the battery's capacity quicker than usual.

"Any data scientist worth [their] salt will know, Don't hurt people," Hayward said.

He then expressed his sentiment to his manager at the time, saying that Facebook's negative practices could harm somebody. However, his manager countered by saying that harming a handful of people would allow Facebook Meta to help the greater masses.

Hayward eventually refused to participate in the negative testing - an act that directly led to his sacking. "it turns out if you tell your boss 'No, that's illegal,' it doesn't go over very well," Hayward added."

Facebook previously hired Hayward in 2016 for at least a six-figure paycheck.

Hayward's lawyer, Dan Kaiser, mentioned that Hayward is still standing by his allegations despite withdrawing his lawsuit. It is clearly illegal," Kaiser said when asked about the practice. "It's enraging that my phone, that the battery can be manipulated by anyone."

Does Facebook Drain Smartphone Batteries?

People have been accusing Facebook of draining their batteries in secret for a long time. Fox News recently reported that Facebook, along with Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, YouTube, and WhatsApp, has been draining people's smartphone batteries for a long time due to them refreshing in the background.

People also noticed Facebook apps draining people's batteries more than a mobile game, with a Reddit thread from 2020 showing that the Messenger app is using more battery than PUBG Mobile, per MacWorld.

Meta has yet to officially address Hayward's allegations.