We can say that 2018 was not exactly the most positive year for the Facebook. Amid so many scandals as the data leak involving the British company Cambridge Analytica and other several privacy problems, now the social network has been the target of yet another controversy and, again, with the name of Apple in the middle.
This time, the New York Times released a report on how Facebook gave some of the world's largest technology companies access to their customers' personal data, according to information obtained from internal records and interviews with people familiar with the “scheme” of the Mark Zuckerberg platform.
As pointed out in the report, the possible agreements were made with Microsoft, Netflix, Spotify and Amazon to supposedly “benefit both sides” by generating more growth for Facebook and giving companies access to resources to “make their platforms more attractive”.
More specifically, Facebook accused of revealing the names of friends of users of the platform with the search engine Bing (from Microsoft) without consent. In addition, Netflix and Spotify may have had access to private messages from Facebook customers.
The list does not stop: while the Yahoo (apparently) being able to view posts that were not publicly available, Amazon may have collected, through a user's friends list, the names and contact information of these people.
As for Apple, the NYT claimed that Facebook allowed the company's devices to “inhibit” user data request indicators (such as location, contacts, calendar, etc.). In addition to requests, in some cases this data was accessed and collected even with users disabling the sharing of this information by the Facebook app.
This is not the first time that the American newspaper has warned users of this illegal Facebook practice involving Apple; last June, the vehicle analyzed data sharing from users of the social network with Ma, Samsung and other smartphone makers.
In response to the new accusations, Apple said it “is unaware of the special access” that Facebook granted to its devices, adding that the collected data remains on users' devices and is not made available to other companies.
Furthermore, Netflix reported on Twitter that "it never asked for, nor accessed private messages from anyone."
Netflix never asked for, or accessed, anyone's private messages. We're not the type to slide into your DMs.
– Netflix US (@netflix) December 19, 2018
Netflix never asked for, or accessed, private messages from anyone. We are not the type to invade your DMs.
Other companies mentioned in the report also denied such a "partnership" with Facebook and consequent breach of users' privacy.
via 9to5Mac
