Slashdot Mirror
Facebook 'Unintentionally Uploaded' Email Contacts From 1.5M Users (cnet.com)
Facebook "unintentionally" harvested the email contacts of about 1.5 million of its users during the past three years. From a report: The activity came to light when a security researcher noticed that Facebook was asking users to enter their email passwords to verify their identities when signing up for an account, according to Business Insider, which previously reported on the practice. Those who did enter their passwords then saw a pop-up message that said it was "importing" their contacts -- without first asking permission, BI reported. A Facebook spokesperson confirmed that 1.5 million people's contacts were collected in this manner since May 2016 to help build Facebook's web of social connections and recommend other users to add as friends.
You stupid fuckers will do anything for free shit. Stupid fucking idiots.
someone's just finally calling them out on this much more widespread practice than the article leads you to believe.
With 5 news stories like this every day for 3 years about bad shit Facebook is caught doing I don't understand how anyone could still be using it.
Can everyone just delete their accounts so we don't have to read this stuff the next 3 years? Mark Zuckerberg himself was proven/caught saying "[the users] I don't know they just trust me with their data, dumb fucks." Does that not say everything you need to know?
Who would have thought that facebook was a pack of wankers this week, surely it was enough to be a pack of wankers last week, the week before, the week before that...
Damn what we have is the largest set of Russian dolls where Facebook are wankers.
Except, they programmed it to do precisely that, so.. intentionally. Just unintentionally raised the ire of folks in doing so.
"The true measure of a person is how they act when they know they won't get caught." - DSRilk
up contacts is the mess up. If it hadn't given any indication it was doing it, then nobody would have noticed. So that's the unintentional part...
For the Zucks contact list
If you grow fast enough that everyone depends on you (even better if you can actually make tons of money), you can do almost anything you want. If there's a government crackdown, you rile up your users against the government.
That seems like a fairly light penalty. Now if we count each user who had their contacts stolen in this manner than would be a $15 billion dollar fine. But I think that each contact stolen should be the definitions of "theft" in this case. So if we the average address book has, say 50 contacts in it, that would be $750 billion. Seems about right for a long running bit of organized crime.
Second class citizen of the New Gilded Age
Liars and thieves - that's social network cloudy services.
In exchange for all your data and all your friend's data, you get to contact your friends and see their comments, photos and videos.
As a friend, I'd like to say Fuck you very much for giving my data to those losers.
And don't use gmail, fuckers.
Pretty sure precious little of what that monster does is unintentional.
That's the excuse my 6 year old tries when they're caught doing something they shouldn't be.
Your mind is like a parachute. It works best when it's been opened.
Doesn't matter for me, the address that FB has for me is my give away address. it is a real address and I do check it every month or so.
Passionately Indifferent
No need for that since you can now use facebook
to me. Arrest FaceBoook!
If an individual did anything like this they'd be facing a long list of felony charges, but since it's a corporation, the DOJ is yawning.
Yeah, right. https://www.esquire.com/uk/lat... [esquire.com] Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard Zuck: Just ask. Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS [Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How'd you manage that one? Zuck: People just submitted it. Zuck: I don't know why. Zuck: They "trust me" Zuck: Dumb fucks.
social media? Not a wise move.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
In addition to that, without asking you, they uploaded all of your mobile phone contacts when you installed their mobile app: https://www.huffpost.com/entry...
This is why I only access facebook from the web on mobile
Hes got the sugar and the gold, ya cant stop these chosen ones
So Facebook was basically running that script like a phishing site to obtain users' passwords. Aren't there laws which apply to that? Or did the lawyers tell them to say "unintentionally" to save themselves from any penalties? Fuck lawyers (and broken legislation).
They intended to *download* the contacts but actually uploaded them instead?
because they now are known to sell user data and told to stop, instead of just selling user data, they are secretly paid to make it look like a mistake, "Oops, we accidentally exposed data how convenient, the sooner the government shuts down facebook, and makes selling user's data illegal the better
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
Yeah sure they did it unintentially (wink wink) Facebook does a lot of things unintential as if their must be some real stupid employee's who just mistakenly do this for months without relaizing.
A report mentioning that number was not in 1.5 million but 1.5 billion. Yes, with the B.
'Unintentionally' my ass.
Facebook has zero credibility with an 'oops' about something like this. Facebook systematically doesn't give a fuck about anybody's privacy, and Zuckerfuck seems quite proud of his down douchyness.
This is why I don't use Facebook, and why all of my browsers block anything to do with Facebook ... I don't trust them in any way shape or form, and I most certainly do not consent to being tracked by them.
Facebook is the only game in town when it comes to discussion groups, keeping with family, sending messages, and creating events. There is no other social network that does all this, now that G+ is gone.
So, call it what you will, until someone makes something better, people just have to put up with Facebook.
... the more evil Facebook looks.
Can't wait to see what kind if legal recourse takes place against them.
It doesn't make sense that the USA has given more power to companies than to people. Every major tech company uses this excuse to do the thing they want to do, then ask for forgiveness because it was "a mistake." Tear them apart for their ineptitude the .
The only accident I see here is the parents of certain FB staff members. And H1B's having no ethos.
And Monica Lewinsky "unintentionally" repeatedly faceplanted onto Bill Clinton's crotch.
Not mine. In April 10th it has been four years I deleted my Faceboot account.
To the hell with that useless social thing.
Can we not focus the outrage of this blatant abuse against the 1.5m individuals who failed in the basic concepts of trust and Internet survival? Can we not dox and banish these people and their kin from the online world to avoid a new breed of vulnerable victims while rendering the internet a safer place in general? Can we stop blaming the ones who prey on the weak but actually the weak themselves? We are only as strong as our weakest link...