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Facebook Accused of Conducting Mass Surveillance Through Its Apps (theguardian.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the hands-where-I-can-see-them dept.

A court case in California alleges that Facebook used its apps to gather information about users and their friends, including some who had not signed up to the social network, reading their text messages, tracking their locations and accessing photos on their phones. The Guardian reports: The claims of what would amount to mass surveillance are part of a lawsuit brought against the company by the former startup Six4Three, listed in legal documents filed at the superior court in San Mateo as part of a court case that has been ongoing for more than two years. The allegations about surveillance appear in a January filing, the fifth amended complaint made by Six4Three. It alleges that Facebook used a range of methods, some adapted to the different phones that users carried, to collect information it could use for commercial purposes.

"Facebook continued to explore and implement ways to track users' location, to track and read their texts, to access and record their microphones on their phones, to track and monitor their usage of competitive apps on their phones, and to track and monitor their calls," one court document says. But all details about the mass surveillance scheme have been redacted on Facebook's request in Six4Three's most recent filings. Facebook claims these are confidential business matters. It has until next Tuesday to submit a claim to the court for the documents to remain sealed from public view.

11 of 93 comments (clear)

  1. When its free by AHuxley · · Score: 4, Insightful

    everyone is the product.

    --
    Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    1. Re:When its free by mjwx · · Score: 2

      everyone is the product.

      Not always.

      Things like Steam are free, you can use steam and not spend a single penny on the Steam store.

      I'm gathering from your sig, you're an Aussie (likely 30's or 40's). I'm an Aussie of similar age who lives in the UK now. Today, is GDPR day. This means that all those scummy companies passing your details around like the town bike are no longer permitted to do that without express consent. As such up until today I've been receiving a plethora of emails and popups, they've come in two types:
      1. We're not compliant with the GDPR, please click here so we can continue spamming you.
      2. We're complaint with the GDPR, we're just letting you know.
      Steam was the latter (along with Singapore Airlines) whilst facebook was the 2nd worst of the former. The good thing about GDPR is that I've been able to tell facebook that they cant ID me in photos or pass my details along to 3rd parties.

      In case you're wondering, Green Motion Rentals was the worst. They've emailed me straight for 2 weeks, 3 last night, even trying emotional blackmail.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    2. Re:When its free by mjwx · · Score: 2

      Sure, Steam is free. But the whole point of Steam is that it's a store. Some products are free, but the vast majority of the products in the store require payment. If you're looking for good examples, you might want to try GIMP, or other free software tools. They are completely free, and don't even ask for your money. There's a small donate link on the top of their page, but you don't even see it unless you go looking for it.

      Well that was my point. Steam isn't using your personal data to make money, they're making money by selling you games and by selling their services to game makers. They're open and honest about what they're doing and how they're doing it. Pretty much the polar opposite of Facebook.

      My point about the GDPR is that everything has been updating their policies in reaction to its enforcement, Steam has had a single popup saying "we're already complaint" with an OK to get rid of the dialog box, not an "I accept" button that everyone else has been featuring.

      Also, if you buy games that use steam via physical media, you still don't need to provide any payment details to Steam.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
  2. Great... by Dins · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They're being accused. Great. But nothing will be done about it and they'll carry on like it never happened. I wish I was more believing, but the skepticism has been drilled into me by years of nothing happening to them.

  3. EU Privacy Law by MS · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... and then people wonder why the EU passes a law to protect our privacy.
    It is high time that this habit to gather private data of those big companies gets tightly restricted.
    I'm sure, other countries around the world will follow.

    1. Re:EU Privacy Law by MS · · Score: 5, Informative

      You're so wrong in so many ways:
      - the new privacy law is nothing more than a harmonisation of different existing laws already in effect since 1996 and subsecutive modifications (the european guideline law was from 24. october 1995)
      - in 1995 there was no Google, facebook, Twitter or WhatsApp.
      - till today the european laws were applicable only to european individuals and companies
      - you cannot compete, if your competitor does not respect the same rules
      - the big data collectors are all outside the EU, so they had to be included too in this new law, as soon as they do business with EU-citizens

      Let's talk about the effects of this new law in a few years - I'm sure he US will follow too.

    2. Re:EU Privacy Law by MS · · Score: 4, Informative

      I suggest this read for some enlightenment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    3. Re:EU Privacy Law by MS · · Score: 3, Informative

      You've got it wrong. Did you actually read the law?

      1. Mom and Pop shops do not need a DPO, that's requested only for businesses with a staff of at least 10 persons. And that DPO does not have to be full-time. Quoting the name of the owner is enough.
      2. IP-addresses are private data only when tied to a name. A simple line in a logfile with an ip-address does not constitute private data.
      3. Usually you don't keep backups forever, but only for the last week or so. Also data may and should be preserved for a limitation period. So that's a non-issue.
      4. You know if your have the server in your house, or if your hoster is in the EU. And if you don't know, you could ask, where the data is physically stored.
      5. I don't see a violation, if I (european) visit a foreign webpage, and that visit gets recorded in the relative logfiles. When I go to a foreign country, I have to respect their laws - the same I have to drive on the left, when I wanna drive a car in GB, Australia or SouthAfrica. If you (US-american) come to Europe, you have to play to EU-rules.

  4. Re: no shit, sherlock. by viperidaenz · · Score: 3, Informative

    I think their claim is they do this without permission, by having their app preinstalled on phones and collecting data from people without Facebook accounts.

  5. Re:You are always the product by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Wow, 4chan retards complaining on /. about people being reddit. The irony.

  6. Corporations first by DogDude · · Score: 4, Interesting

    In the US, corporations, literally, have more rights than individuals do. That's just the way it is, and that's the way it will be until bribery of our politicians is made illegal. Until that happens, nothing will change.

    --
    I don't respond to AC's.