Facebook's Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation (cnn.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: Federal prosecutors are conducting a criminal investigation into data deals Facebook struck with some of the world's largest technology companies (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternative source), intensifying scrutiny of the social media giant's business practices as it seeks to rebound from a year of scandal and setbacks. A grand jury in New York has subpoenaed records from at least two prominent makers of smartphones and other devices, according to two people who were familiar with the requests and who insisted on anonymity to discuss confidential legal matters. Both companies had entered into partnerships with Facebook, gaining broad access to the personal information of hundreds of millions of its users. The companies were among more than 150, including Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Sony, that had cut sharing deals with the world's dominant social media platform. The agreements, previously reported in The New York Times, let the companies see users' friends, contact information and other data, sometimes without consent. Facebook has phased out most of the partnerships over the past two years. "We are cooperating with investigators and take those probes seriously," a Facebook spokesman said in a statement. "We've provided public testimony, answered questions and pledged that we will continue to do so."

Comments

Who Is The Capital Behind Facebook?

[dryriver]

I remember living in a developing country when Facebook first became popular, and getting _inundated_ with daily requests to "join X on Facebook". I smelled a rat and didn't. What was frightening was the _crazy_ adoption rate of this mediocre web service - _everyone_ I knew was putting pressure on everyone else _they_ knew to also be on Facebook. People kept telling me "I can't find you on Facebook, I can't find you on Facebook". That doesn't happen without Billions of Dollars in capital behind the first push of the website. Why would millions suddenly rush to put their photo and personal data on such a simple and poorly designed website, and one with a name directly referencing "Face Indexing" or "Face Data Collection" to boot? It takes money to pull this off. LOTS of money. That money probably - even back then - came from various big industries desperate to collect as much personal data about everyone around the world as possible. Thus Facebook was not a "little Mark Zuckerberg genius startup" at all. This was a heavily industry-funded social media site from day one. And they probably got everyone's data piped to them from Day 1. Facebook _was_ about "connecting people" - but connecting them with industries who want to syphon their personal data away.

Re:Who Is The Capital Behind Facebook?

[Anonymous Coward]

I recall when it first launched, Zuckerberg's name wasn't attached to or associated with it at all, and word was the project started with InQTel money.