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Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

nytimes.com

141–150 of 248 posts

Re: Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

#141

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 :)

I am still raging angry about Wells Fargo and Equifax.

Re: Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

#142
The fact that FB and all of its services were down at the same time can't really be a coincidence, can it?

Is Facebook trying to delete incriminating evidence? It wouldn't surprise me one bit if they did that. I hope the prosecutors are smart enough to look for evidence of this, even though I'm sure FB's experts will try to leave as few traces as possible.

Re: Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

#143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a movement starting to put ownership of data back into the hands of the people who created it. https://hu-manity.co/ Feels like the right solution even if the task is monumental.

I was all 'pro' this link, until I read: > Hu-manity.co has ... designed new intelligent contracts on blockchains which humans can use to negotiate new terms of consent and authorization with corporations so that inherent human data can be respected as legal property. It's great that people are serious about this, but extreme care should be taken with the latest tech hype! Blockchains are (by design) are 'out there',…

More importantly, if a project describes itself as using or being involved with blockchain, most of the time it is a scam - be it about scamming people for money or attention. I would be careful before getting tainted through association.

Re: Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

#144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a movement starting to put ownership of data back into the hands of the people who created it. https://hu-manity.co/ Feels like the right solution even if the task is monumental.

I was all 'pro' this link, until I read: > Hu-manity.co has ... designed new intelligent contracts on blockchains which humans can use to negotiate new terms of consent and authorization with corporations so that inherent human data can be respected as legal property. It's great that people are serious about this, but extreme care should be taken with the latest tech hype! Blockchains are (by design) are 'out there',…

An audit log on blockchain with a decentralized data exchange would be a viable use case for this kind of application to build trust on the network but also provide GDPR compliance.

Re: Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

#145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This sounds like an absurdity, hiding your information from your bank?

Re: Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

#146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This sounds like an absurdity, hiding your information from your bank?

Fake address is a good start... Like a PO box you own. Banks are the worst offenders in sharing data with... Data brokers.

Re: Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

#147
post #91
post #6

Ok, so those partnerships were basically allowing Samsung and others to build Facebook app on their phones (i.e. allowing alternative client). Would this means that it will be criminal to allow companies to create alternative clients? That is really interesting development.

Samsung devices shipped with the same Facebook client app as on the Google Play store, it wasn't an alternative. The back end data access was through other means.

Not all samsung devices had android at that time.

Re: Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

#149
post #134

"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 i…

“according to two people who were familiar with the requests and who insisted on anonymity to discuss confidential legal matters.”

Yes, there is a lot (more) we would like to know.

But this is as good a time as ever to do a little experiment regarding the practice of anonymous sources: at some point, we are likely to learn more about this investigation. Then, you can check if the information we have now was correct. Or, as the common accusation goes, it was a wholesale fabrication by the Times.

Re: Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

#150
post #6

Ok, so those partnerships were basically allowing Samsung and others to build Facebook app on their phones (i.e. allowing alternative client). Would this means that it will be criminal to allow companies to create alternative clients? That is really interesting development.

No, of course not. Why would I you ask this?

It seems like Facebook somehow gave these partners rather deep access. To all users, not just those using those phones or who opted into the arrangement.

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