Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Facebook is discontinuing several services that tracked your real-time location — including Nearby Friends, weather alerts, location history, and background location — due to “low usage,” as spotted by 9to5Mac. In a notification sent to people who’ve used the feature in the past, Facebook says it will stop collecting data associated with these features on May 31st and will wipe any stored data on August 1st.
Facebook parent company Meta confirmed the news to The Verge. “While we’re deprecating some location-based features on Facebook due to low usage, people can still use Location Services to manage how their location information is collected and used,” spokesperson Emil Vazquez said in an emailed statement.
