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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.
LinkedIn does exactly the same thing. I've never given it permission to harvest my e-mails, yet it somehow seem to suggest me contacts based on addressbook matches alone.
All social platforms are just slimy personal information harversters. Burn them all.
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).
One (brutal, draconian, merciless) Law for human persons.
One (light, permissive, forgiving) Law for corporate "persons".