Facebook has admitted that it gave dozens of companies access to its users’ data after saying it had restricted access to such data back in 2015, the latest wrinkle in a firestorm over how the social network manages user information.
In news first reported by The Wall Street Journal, Facebook handed a 747-page document to U.S. lawmakers released late Friday. In that cache of information, Facebook said it granted 61 companies like AOL, Nike, UPS and dating app Hinge a "one-time" six-month extension to comply with its policy changes on user data. In addition, there are at least five other firms that may have accessed limited data, due to access they were granted as part of a Facebook experiment, the company added.
In 2015, Facebook said it had cut off developer access to its users’ data and their friends.What's that you say? Facebook said one thing about its treatment of users' data in 2015, only to be forced to admit in 2018 that their previous claims were actually bullshit? Quelle surprise!
Unlike their 450-page written response to Congressional questioning, Facebook dropped their latest coma-inducing door-stopper late on Friday, which is what you do if you're trying to bury a story; the idea is that most newsrooms have closed for the weekend, leaving only cable news channels who mostly rely on print media outlets to do their actual reporting, anyway. The Wall Street Journal, however, apparently had other ideas, and posted an extensive write-up:
Facebook provided the document to the Energy and Commerce Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives in response to hundreds of questions from the committee, which quizzed Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg during testimony in April. The committee said on its website that it received the responses shortly before midnight on Friday; the deadline for the responses was the close of business Friday.
It is Facebook’s second attempt at answering Congress’s queries [...] lawmakers asked Mr. Zuckerberg whether Facebook was in violation of a settlement the company made in 2012 with the Federal Trade Commission, under which the company is required to give its users clear and prominent notice and obtain their express consent before sharing their information beyond their privacy settings. Facebook said in the document that it has not violated the FTC act.
Facebook indicated it has struggled to fully reconstruct what happened to its users’ information. “It is possible we have not been able to identify some extensions,” Facebook said about companies that had access to users’ friends’ information past the 2015 cutoff.Q: Did you, Facebook, violate your 2012 settlement with the FTC?
A: No, because we changed our policies three years after that, which is clearly good enough to keep us out of trouble.
Q: Are you sure?
A: OK, it's possible that we issued extensions to some of our favourite corporate customers after 2015. So, maybe. But probably not. [Three weeks later.] OK, yes. Yes, we did. Can we please bury this in a Friday night news dump?
[And... scene!]
Seriously, somebody needs to hold Facebook accountable for this shit.