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Facebook Gave Device Makers Deep Access To Data On Users and Friends (nytimes.com)
According to a report from The New York Times, Facebook formed data-sharing partnerships with Apple, Samsung, and dozens of other device makers, allowing them to access vast amounts of its users' personal information (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternative source). From the report: Facebook has reached data-sharing partnerships with at least 60 device makers -- including Apple, Amazon, BlackBerry, Microsoft and Samsung -- over the last decade, starting before Facebook apps were widely available on smartphones, company officials said. The deals allowed Facebook to expand its reach and let device makers offer customers popular features of the social network, such as messaging, "like" buttons and address books.
But the partnerships, whose scope has not previously been reported, raise concerns about the company's privacy protections and compliance with a 2011 consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission. Facebook allowed the device companies access to the data of users' friends without their explicit consent, even after declaring that it would no longer share such information with outsiders. Some device makers could retrieve personal information even from users' friends who believed they had barred any sharing, The New York Times found. Most of the partnerships remain in effect, though Facebook began winding them down in April.
But the partnerships, whose scope has not previously been reported, raise concerns about the company's privacy protections and compliance with a 2011 consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission. Facebook allowed the device companies access to the data of users' friends without their explicit consent, even after declaring that it would no longer share such information with outsiders. Some device makers could retrieve personal information even from users' friends who believed they had barred any sharing, The New York Times found. Most of the partnerships remain in effect, though Facebook began winding them down in April.
Haven't we all been expecting news like this for a while? Seems like there is such a mutual dependency between the device makers and what they want vice what Facebook is willing to provide.
, even after declaring that it would no longer share such information with outsiders.
To facebook, there are no outsiders. Getting stalked by them is not optional. You have been assimilated. Resistance is futile.
Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
They’re talking about the API that was used by device manufacturers back before standalone Facebook apps were available on different platforms. The user still had to sign in and grant access for the API to be useful. The summary sounds as if it was written by someone who had the idea of an API explained to them, didn’t really understand it, and so they tried to explain it in less technical terms by referring to it as a “data sharing agreement”, giving it a very different connotation.
to agree to pre install something like Facebook. Good to know.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
and that product can be passed around a lot.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Mark Zuckerberg committed perjury in congressional testimony.
No, the API is still in use for Bixby, Alexa etc., Cambridge Analytics (one of Robert Mercers companies) was decertified for its use in 2015. But its not some long gone API.
It's also doesn't require your permission if the data is accessible by someone else. Their permission alone is enough, even for the contents of message data:
If you recall the Cambridge Analytics leak.
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-43718175
"Facebook has confirmed that private messages were included in data involved in the Cambridge Analytica scandal.....The social network said that about 0.5% of the 305,000 people who installed a personal data-harvesting app had given permission for it to access their Facebook inboxes...However, many more would have been affected as the haul would have included conversations with others. "
Read the TOS. If you agree to it for a non essential service like Facebook you deserve to be treated this way. I quit Facebook years ago for this reason and because I hated their company in general. Now I find myself supporting Facebook simply because I told everyone, IT professionals told everyone, and even Facebook told everyone. The response was generally "why would they care about me" or " I'm not important enough for them to care about my data". Now everyone wants to bitch because the mean man got elected president "and its all Facebooks fault". These stupid idiots were smart enough to tell the professionals how paranoid they were about Facebooks TOS so now they can live with the consequences. I only hope that these crybabies data can be used over and over again to help elect presidents which they absolutely abhor.
Mark Zuckerberg committed perjury in congressional testimony.
OMFG we would never have known this without your expert reporting, really you deserve an award
Let's go straight to the real questions:
Who DIDN'T get access to Facebook's user-and-friends data?
According to Maxine Waters, they gave Obama a DB like no one had ever seen before. Lol
"Absence of evidence is not proof of absence"
Let's keep this paraphrase and this story close at hand when the apologists continue professing how Apple absolutely protects your privacy.
Apple is more guarded with privacy and has done some commendable things standing up for privacy, but if they are willing to extract "other people's" private data from Facebook without our consent... how difficult could it be for us to be one of *those* "other people"? how appealing could it be your user's own data to be closely guarded if you are the borrower/keeper of that data, like Facebook happened to be in this case?
No "mistakes" are made when these costly / profitable data-sharing alliances are forged, except for getting caught, that is :)
It boils down to our picking the lesser of 2, 3, 4 evils, but every company ultimately ends up painting itself into a corner as the evidence slowly trickles in over the years.
If you're sharing your entire existence on social media, don't be surprised when absolutely everybody winds up having access to your entire existence.
Here's a useful link outlining the best way to deal with facebook issues, privacy and other: https://www.facebook.com/help/224562897555674