January 31, 2023
George Hayward, a former Facebook employee recently claimed that Meta apps can intentionally drain a user’s smartphone battery and has sued Meta as a result.
This process, known as “Negative Testing,” allows technology companies to secretly drain a user’s phone’s battery in order to test features within an app.
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.
Facebook fired Hayward in November. He then filed a lawsuit in Manhattan Federal Court against them. The former Facebook employee, 33, was directly involved in the development of Facebook’s Messenger app, which allows users to text and make audio and video calls.
Hayward’s attorney, Dan Kaiser, stated in the lawsuit that draining users’ smartphone batteries can put them in danger “in situations where they need to communicate with others, including but not limited to police or other rescue workers.”
Hayward is being forced to withdraw his suit due to Meta’s employment terms, and he had to make his case in arbitration.
The sources for this piece include an article in GizmoChina.
