Facebook has other big Tech companies wide-ranging access to user data – in some cases without the Knowledge of user. How extensive is the access rights of Microsoft and Amazon were on Yahoo to Netflix, a Research of the New York Times. The Reporter evaluated 270 pages of internal documents and spoke with 60 people, including former employees of Facebook.
It’s tailor-made Deals of Facebook, with 150 companies – including the digital offer of the New York Times itself. You were able to capture data of the users, even if they had had no direct contact with the company. This, at least, careless handling of user data violates might be in breach of an agreement to Facebook with a US regulatory authority.
Negligently or with intent?
In any case, the revelation is embarrassing for Facebook. In the course of the Case, Cambridge Analytica, in the external App developer and uncontrolled data from the social network could grab, had asserted CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and CEO Sheryl Sandberg to have the data access for other companies since 2014 have been significantly limited. The report of the Times, the practice went on for selected companies after that, but still years.
Accordingly, the agreements included among other things:
messages that the user wrote to each other on Facebook, were for many years, still less private than I thought. Third-party companies such as Spotify, Netflix, and the Bank of Canada had not only Read but also write permissions for private messages. This means that The companies were not only able Facebook-spy on the users, they would be able to change the messages. It is entirely unclear why this ability was necessary in order to integrate a connection to Facebook in your services, so that users could share for example, songs from Spotify easily on Facebook. Users should be able to Facebook messages directly from the Spotify Desktop App to send. The companies agreed, however, to have not known that they had had such far-reaching rights of Intervention. It is also of no case in which you made use of this possibility. The documents tell of the Times, also something about a mysterious Facebook feature « people you may know ». They rattled members of the network for years, because they are making Connections with people who have nothing to do with the Facebook circle of friends of the Affected. Users and journalists speculate that it is based in part on Connections outside of Facebook by some members but for private or professional reasons, with your Facebook-life mix. According to the report, Facebook used the contact lists from Amazon, Huawei, and Yahoo, to users, to suggest possible new « friends ». Amazon was able to find out, according to the report, the name and contact information of users without directly contact. The company will handle you on the friends list of the Facebook-contacts – without the Affected to hear this. Yahoo could see this summer posts from users who had no contact with the company, even Microsoft’s search engine Bing was able to access up to 2017, on data from unsuspecting « friends » of users, although Facebook was declared to have the opportunity of 2014 abolished.
Facebook admitted that some interfaces are not closed even after the delicate Features were officially abolished. The company had taken the full protection of its user data therefore, for many years.
Has failed to Facebook against an agreement with the Supervisory authority, the FTC?
The new information about Access of third parties could have consequences for Facebook. Several experts commented that the company might have violated an agreement with the trade Commission FTC, the watches in the United States through fair competition. The agreement stipulates that users must be informed, who like their data accesses. This agreement with the state, have also closed Google and Twitter, are one of the few privacy rules in the United States. The country has a comprehensive legal data protection System, such as the European Union and Germany.
Facebook’s justification for the adventure sounds: The third company to have regarded as extensions of Facebook itself, quoted by the New York Times, Steve Satterfield, in the group for the privacy of the users responsible. Therefore, you have to have to Facebook users not separately ask for permission, what may make these other companies with your data. The companies were not contractually obliged to need the information, miss.
Alex Stamos, the former head of security at Facebook, said on Twitter that the access of the Facebook third-party grants to its Ecosystem, is in the spirit of the competition. Facebook other companies would refuse access, it would gain even more market power. He criticized the New York Times to authorize this operation, « scandal ». At the same time, Stamos accused his former employer but, to make the names and access rights of the third-party provider of transparent. (Editorial Tamedia)
Created: 19.12.2018, 21:18 PM
