Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

#41

Post by dang » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 12:19 AM UTC

jparse wrote: post #22

darawk wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Criminal charges for what exactly? They shared their user data with other companies. Since when is that criminal?

Did you read the article? Here is the excerpt: > Privacy advocates said the partnerships seemed to violate a 2011 consent agreement between Facebook and the F.T.C., stemming from allegations that the company had shared data in ways that deceived consumers. The deals also appeared to contradict statements by Mark Zuckerberg and other executives that Facebook had clamped down several years ago on sharing the data of us…

Please don't insinuate that someone hasn't read an article. "Did you even read the article? It mentions that" can be shortened to "The article mentions that."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

#42

Post by n1231231231234 » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 12:20 AM UTC

rrdharan wrote: post #19

Trill-I-Am wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

n-gate?

http://n-gate.com/hackernews/ Enjoy!

for me, it's stuck on the security check - or is this the joke?

Re: Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

#43

Post by godzillabrennus » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 12:23 AM UTC

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.

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.

Re: Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

#44

Post by makomk » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 12:23 AM UTC

jxdxbx wrote: post #13

mic47 wrote: 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.

Individually negotiated confidential deals are not the same as open APIs and protocols which is where alternative clients normally come into play. And the “alternative client” stuff doesn’t even apply to Amazon, Bing etc

Ironically, the whole point of having individual deals rather than an API open to everyone seems to have been ensuring the companies didn't do anything dodgy with people's data. Then the New York Times spun Facebook's approval process as them giving those companies special access to users' data, even when that data never left the end user devices, and now this has apparently lead to a criminal investigation.

Re: Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

#45

Post by solomatov » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 12:27 AM UTC

shhehebehdh wrote: post #15

At this point it is just an investigation. Nobody has been charged with anything. They have to find a law Facebook has broken first, and presumably establish enough evidence that they expect to succeed at a trial.

Do you have any idea what charges these may be? IFAIU, there're no laws which make it criminal to share information.

Re: Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

#46

Post by solomatov » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 12:27 AM UTC

badfrog wrote: post #28

shhehebehdh wrote: post #15

At this point it is just an investigation. Nobody has been charged with anything. They have to find a law Facebook has broken first, and presumably establish enough evidence that they expect to succeed at a trial.

Doesn't a grand jury meet after charges have been filed? Or is federal different than state in that respect?

IANAL, but grand juries do a lot of work before the charges are filled. For example, they check whether there's a probable cause for a search warrant.

Re: Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

#47

Post by darawk » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 12:29 AM UTC

georgeecollins wrote: post #32

darawk wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Criminal charges for what exactly? They shared their user data with other companies. Since when is that criminal?

https://www.netlawman.co.uk/ia/breach-of-consent-order

Breach of a consent decree is not necessarily criminal, as far as I can tell. And even if it was, it definitely wouldn't represent a crime on the part of any FB engineers.

Re: Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

#48

Post by mudil » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 12:30 AM UTC

Wholesale surveillance of individuals by internet companies has to stop. And that includes Google.

Re: Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

#49

Post by 3327 » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 12:32 AM UTC

Facebook is a criminal corp. And indeed when you are selling data to clients that resell or do with the data as they please (including mining them) they should be under criminal investigation. Thank God the FBI exists and counting for the day that criminal charges are brought against executives who broke the law.

Re: Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

#50

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 12:36 AM UTC

badfrog wrote: post #14

No indication of what the charges are? The closest thing in the article is: > the partnerships seemed to violate a 2011 consent agreement between Facebook and the F.T.C which doesn't seem like it would be criminal? Does the US actually have criminal laws regarding selling data? Any educated guesses on what's actually going on?

[deleted]