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Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

nytimes.com

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Re: Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

#131

Post by vkou »

mehrdadn wrote: post #70
minimaxir wrote: post #59

FB Response: https://twitter.com/fbnewsroom/status/1105993038671691776?s=... > It's already been reported that there are ongoing federal investigations, incl. by the Dept of Justice. As we’ve said, we're cooperating w/ investigators and take those probes seriously. We've provided public testimony, answered questions, and pledged that we'll continue to do so

Does anyone ever say they're not cooperating with investigators?

Elon Musk tends to continue posting foot-in-mouth tweets, when he's under investigation.

Re: Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

#132

Post by artificial »

sonnyblarney wrote: post #92

I was personally involved in a leadership role in one of these key strategic deals while at a major handset maker. To be clear, we built the 'Facebook experience' for our device because only we really could. During this era, APIs were a disaster of a mess, moreover, the special API that made the device so special was not available to the public. Ironically it was our internal APIs that were making the special sauce!…

As far as the responsibility goes I’ll raise you a Zygna, and especially the Obama campaign which was lauded by the media and facilitated by the platform because after they noticed the abuse “they’re on the same side”. I doubt this would be such a pernicious issue if another candidate won.

Re: Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

#134

Post by 3xblah »

"It is not clear when the grand jury inquiry, overseen by prosecutors with the United States attorney's office for the Eastern District of New York, began or exactly what it is focusing on."

What is NYT source for this story?

A leak about the existence of an investigation?

NYT journalist saw entries for grand jury subpoenas on PACER?

How do they know the crime has to do with data deals?

We must wait until complaint is filed before anyone can disclose the statute allegedly violated, correct?

Re: Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

#136

Post by 8bitsrule »

IANAL. But this:

"reports last June and December that Facebook had given business partners — including makers of smartphones, tablets and other devices — deep access to users’ personal information, letting some companies effectively override users’ privacy settings."

suggests breach-of-contract. Just by creating those privacy settings, the company is 'saying' to (promising) the customer who elects to use them that it will protect that information. That's an (implied) contract. Subsequently allowing anyone else to access that information is a breach.

It'd be interesting to see FB argue in court that breaking promises was okay as a form of restitution for the services they provide.

Re: Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

#137

Post by dredmorbius »

elorant wrote: post #56
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #4

There has been a tremendous amount of grassroots lobbying, fundraising, and private investigation in New York over the past two years with respect to Facebook. It’s a serious area I feel Silicon Valley has abdicated its moral obligation to stand up to its own. Hoping we can develop the evidence that comes out of this case into criminal charges for individual engineers and senior officers.

So let's incriminate engineers for building a faulty airplane too.

Precedent:

229 If a builder builds a house for someone, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built falls and kills its owner, then that builder shall be put to death.

230. If it kills the son of the owner, the son of that builder shall be put to death.

http://iws.collin.edu/mbailey/hammurabi%27s%20laws.htm

Re: Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

#138

Post by sixtram »

8bitsrule wrote: post #136

IANAL. But this: "reports last June and December that Facebook had given business partners — including makers of smartphones, tablets and other devices — deep access to users’ personal information, letting some companies effectively override users’ privacy settings." suggests breach-of-contract. Just by creating those privacy settings, the company is 'saying' to (promising) the customer who elects to use them that it…

If it's for one user then it's a breach of contract, if you do that for 10 million, that's a deliberate act of breaching all contracts and that is usually criminal.

scale matters on these issues as well.

and if you are doing it as a big utility company (e.g. banks) then you are free to go :)

Re: Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

#140

Post by 8bitsrule »

sixtram wrote: post #138
8bitsrule wrote: post #136

IANAL. But this: "reports last June and December that Facebook had given business partners — including makers of smartphones, tablets and other devices — deep access to users’ personal information, letting some companies effectively override users’ privacy settings." suggests breach-of-contract. Just by creating those privacy settings, the company is 'saying' to (promising) the customer who elects to use them that it…

If it's for one user then it's a breach of contract, if you do that for 10 million, that's a deliberate act of breaching all contracts and that is usually criminal. scale matters on these issues as well. and if you are doing it as a big utility company (e.g. banks) then you are free to go :)

The bank I've long used is constantly reminding me that it shares data with its 'affiliates'. So I give it very little data to share.
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