Facebook will ban beloved features for BILLIONS of users at end of the month

FACEBOOK began alerting users Thursday that it is axing some features that amass data about users' whereabouts.

The U.S. social media giant says that Nearby Friends and Weather alerts will be shut down by the end of the month.

Both track location data from users' devices to either provide weather updates or alert Facebook friends when they are close by.

Alerts, Location History, and Background Location are also "going away soon", Facebook says in the notification.

The alert rolling out on the Facebook app for Android and iOS does not provide any detail on why the features are being removed.

"Nearby Friends and Weather alerts will no longer be available after May 31, 2022," Facebook says.

"Information you shared that was used for these experiences, including Location History and Background Location, will stop being collected after May 31, 2022."

This is true "even if you have previously enabled them", the social media app adds.

Some of the data, including a map of the places you've visited stored under "Location History", will be available for download until August 1.

After that, Facebook says that this data will be deleted.

The move is a step in the right direction for an app that has been criticised down the years for the way it tracks its users.

However, it does not mean that the Facebook app will stop hoarding users' location data.

The company says that data will still be collected "for other experiences."

Speaking to The Sun, a spokesperson for Meta, the company that owns Facebook, confirmed the plans to bin some location services.