An investigation by Privacy International has revealed that 61 per cent of apps downloaded and installed on Android smartphones shared users data with Facebook. (more…)
Tag: Facebook
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Facebook says preferential data access was with user permission
Facebook Inc said on Wednesday it did not give some companies access to people’s data without their permission.
It said this after the New York Times reported on Tuesday that the social network allowed some large technology companies greater access to user data.
The paper reported that Facebook allowed Microsoft’s Bing search engine to see the names of virtually all Facebook users’ friends without their consent, citing documents from 2017.
“None of these partnerships or features gave companies access to information without people’s permission, nor did they violate our 2012 settlement with the FTC,” Konstantinos Papamiltiadis said in a blog post.
Papamiltiadis is Facebook’s director of developer platforms and programs.
Facebook also gave companies like Netflix and Spotify the ability to read users’ private messages and permitted Amazon to obtain users’ names and contact information through their friends, the media said.
Facebook said what it did was to help users access their Facebook accounts or specific features on devices and platforms built by other companies like Apple, Amazon, Blackberry and Yahoo, known as integration partners.
The company said these partners got access to messages but users “had to explicitly sign in to Facebook first” before using a partner’s messaging feature.
Facebook said it shut down nearly all of these partnerships over the past several months, except Apple and Amazon.
Earlier this month, a British lawmaker released documents that revealed Facebook offered some companies, including Netflix and Airbnb, access to data about users’ friends it did not make available to most other apps in 2015.
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Facebook sued by Washington, D.C. over data breach accusations
The attorney general for Washington, D.C. said on Wednesday the U.S. capital city had sued Facebook Inc for allegedly misleading users about how it safeguarded their personal data, in the latest fallout from the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
The world’s largest social media company has drawn global scrutiny since disclosing earlier this year that a third-party personality quiz distributed on Facebook gathered profile information on 87 million users worldwide.
It sold the data to British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica.
Washington, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine said Facebook misled users because it had known about the incident for two years before disclosing it.
The company had told users it vetted third-party apps, yet made few checks, Racine said.
Facebook said in a statement: “We’re reviewing the complaint and look forward to continuing our discussions with attorneys general in DC and elsewhere.”
Facebook could be levied a civil penalty of 5,000 dollars per violation of the region’s consumer protection law, or potentially close to $1.7 billion, if penalized for each consumer affected.
The lawsuit alleges the quiz software had data on 340,000 D.C. residents, though just 852 users had directly engaged with it.
Shares in the company were down 4.7 per cent in afternoon trade on Wednesday.
Privacy settings on Facebook to control what friends on the network could see and what data could be accessed by apps were also deceiving, Racine said.
“Facebook’s lax oversight and confusing privacy settings put the information of millions of consumers at risk,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
“In our lawsuit, we’re seeking to hold Facebook accountable for jeopardizing and exposing the information” of its customers.
Racine said Facebook had tried to settle the case before he filed the lawsuit, as is typical during investigations of large companies.
He described Facebook’s cooperation as “reasonable,” but said that a lawsuit was necessary “to expedite change” at the company.
At least six U.S. states have ongoing investigations into Facebook’s privacy practices, according to state officials.
In March, a bipartisan coalition of 37 state attorneys wrote to the company, demanding to know more about the Cambridge Analytica data and its possible links to U.S. President Donald Trump’s election campaign.
Also in March, the Federal Trade Commission took the unusual step of announcing that it had opened an investigation into whether the company had violated a 2011 consent decree.
It cited media reports that raise what it called “substantial concerns about the privacy practices of Facebook.”
If the FTC finds Facebook violated the decree terms, it has the power to fine it thousands of dollars a day per violation, which could add up to billions of dollars.
State attorneys general from both major U.S. political parties have stepped up their enforcement of privacy laws in recent years, said James Tierney.
Tierney is a lecturer at Harvard Law School and Maine’s former attorney general.
Uber Technologies Inc in September agreed to pay 148 million dollars as part of a settlement with 50 U.S. states and Washington, D.C., which investigated a data breach that exposed personal data from 57 million Uber accounts.
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Trump accuses Facebook, Google, Twitter of bias
US President Donald Trump took a swipe on Tuesday at America’s tech giants, accusing them of having a liberal bias, and claiming Twitter was making it more difficult to follow his account.
“Facebook, Twitter and Google are so biased toward the Dems it is ridiculous!. Twitter, in fact, has made it much more difficult for people to join @realDonaldTrump. They have removed many names & greatly slowed the level and speed of increase. They have acknowledged-done NOTHING!” Trump tweeted.
Trump is a regular critic of social media and his criticism echoed another attack on Twitter as recently as October, when he again accused the platform of stifling the growth of his account.
The Internet firms have consistently denied charges of political bias and many analysts have pointed to large social media followings of conservatives including Trump.
Twitter said in a statement it has been working to weed out accounts that hide a user’s true identity or seek to manipulate the platform.
“Our focus is on the health of the service, and that includes work to remove fake accounts to prevent malicious behaviour,” Twitter said in an emailed statement.
“Many prominent accounts have seen follower counts drop, but the result is higher confidence that the followers they have are real, engaged people.”
The criticism came a day after a report for the Senate revealed Russian agents had used social media in an attempt to sway the 2016 election in Trump’s favour.
An analysis for the Senate Intelligence Committee described an organised campaign by the St Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency (IRA) to hurt Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee.
Troll accounts marshalled by the organisation had inflamed right-wing conspiracy theories and suppressed the vote of traditionally liberal-leaning groups such as African Americans, the report said.
The IRA-created “Blacktivist” account sent out messages such as: “No lives matter to Hillary Clinton. Only votes matter to Hillary Clinton.”
Separately, a portion of the 3,841 IRA accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube studied by the researchers sought to provoke Republican-leaning white Americans to get out and vote.
The study showed the IRA US campaign began in 2015, aiming to mobilise conservative voters, with no specific backing for Trump at the time.
But as the then-candidate gained support, and especially when he drove his anti-immigrant message, the IRA posts turned in his favour.
While the study did not draw any lines between the IRA propaganda and the election results — Republican Donald Trump stunned Clinton to take the White House — post-election data suggests some impact.
According to the Pew Research Center, white voter turnout surged in 2016 while black turnout sank by five percentage points, to 59.6 percent, from four years earlier.
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Facebook’s Sandberg cites need to do more after reports of Russia meddling
Facebook Inc’s Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said on Tuesday the company needs to step up its efforts to curb misinformation.
Sandberg said this after research revealed that Russia-backed organizations targeted African-Americans.
The groups targeted were those who favored Hillary Clinton in order to suppress voter turnout during the 2016 election.
U.S. intelligence agencies had earlier concluded that Russia interfered in the election to help U.S. President Donald Trump by undermining Democratic candidate Clinton.
“Two independent reports commissioned by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence were released Monday on the Russian Internet Research Agency’s (IRA) use of technology around the 2016 election .
The reports suggest that the IRA’s efforts had a disproportionate impact on communities of color,” Sandberg said in a blog post here.
“We know that we need to do more: to listen, look deeper and take action to respect fundamental rights,” Sandberg said.
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Best Places to Work: Facebook loses grounds; Apple gains
Boston-based management consulting firm Bain & Co. has dislodged social media firm Facebook to be ranked number one best place to work in 2019.
TheNewsGuru (TNG) reports Facebook lost the best place to work tag after being hit by users’ data scandals amid falling stocks this year, while Apple moved up in the list of top-rated employers.
According to leading jobs website Glassdoor’s annual “100 Best Places to Work in the US” list that came out on Wednesday, Facebook is now ranked number seven, scoring 4.5 out of a perfect 5.
While Apple moved up from No 84 to 71 with a score of 4.3, Microsoft moved up from No 39 to 34 as its score dropped from 4.4 to 4.3.
Microsoft-owned LinkedIn, however, is at sixth place with a score of 4.5, read the information on the Glassdoor website.
While Facebook was the best place to work in America last year, Cupertino-based tech giant Apple had tumbled to number 84 in 2017 from its 36th position in 2016.
Amazon didn’t even make it to the list, with an award score of 4.1, just outside of the top 100.
Apple, on the other hand, moved up in the ranking, from No. 84 to 71, though it maintained the same score of 4.3. Microsoft moved up in ranking from No. 39 to 34 on the list although their award score dropped from 4.4 to 4.3. Google was 8th while Salesforce came 11th.
The Top-100 list by Glassdoor is for large organisations or those with at least 1,000 employees.
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France, Germany aim to keep digital tax alive
France and Germany on Tuesday sought to salvage a proposed EU tax on big digital firms including Google and Facebook by narrowing the focus to cover only companies’ online advertising revenue.
Eager to break months of deadlock, the two countries’ finance ministers put a new proposal to their EU counterparts at a meeting on the issue in Brussels.
In March, the European Union’s executive arm proposed a 3 percent tax on big digital firms’ online revenues, accusing them of funnelling profits through member states with the lowest tax rates to keep their overall tax down.
While France has pushed hard for the digital levy, countries such as Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland have opposed it while Germany has also had misgivings.
The new Franco-German proposal would still impose a 3 percent levy, but not cover data sales and online marketplaces since it would be focused on advertising revenues.
That means companies with big online advertising operations like Google and Facebook would be the most affected as they make the majority of the market in Europe.
A broader turnover tax on firms with significant digital revenues in Europe would have hit companies such as Apple and Amazon harder.
“It’s a first step in the right direction which in the coming months should make the taxation of digital giants a possibility,” French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said.
“Will it put all arguments to rest? certainly not,” he added.
Le Maire said that if the tax were adopted, individual countries like France would be free to impose it on a wider basis.
In the original European Commission proposal, the tax was intended to be a temporary “quick fix” until a broader solution could be found among OECD members.
Under the Franco-German proposal, the tax would not come into force until January, 2021 and only if no broader international solution has been found.
The tax requires the support of all 28 EU states, including small, low-tax countries like Ireland which have benefited by allowing multinationals to book profits there on digital sales to customers elsewhere in the European Union.
The European Union’s current Austrian presidency has been trying to reach a deal on the tax by the end of the year. The Franco-German proposal calls for a deal by March.
The setback is a painful blow to French President Emmanuel Macron, as his government had invested considerable political capital in the tax. It is also seen in Paris as a useful example of joint European action before EU parliament elections next year.
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Segun Onibiyo explains alleged hate speech made against Buhari, el-Rufai
Segun Onibiyo, Presenter and Producer at Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), has explained alleged hate speech made against President Muhammadu Buhari and Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufai.
TheNewsGuru (TNG) reports Segun gave the explanation in a statement lodged at a Kaduna Police station, following his arrest last week for allegedly making malicious posts on Facebook about the late Agom Adamawa curfew in Kaduna state.
He denied making any malicious posts against President Buhari, Governor el-Rufai or any other persons, stressing that he understands full well the implications of attacking public figures.
Segun’s statement to the Police reads: “My name is Onibiyo, Segun Mike Gbenga, born on the 20th of August, 1974 in Ife-Olukofun, Yagba East Local Government Area of Kogi State. I am the 3rd in a family of 7. I grew up in Kaduna where I went to school – Kaduna Polytechnic and studied Mass Communication.
“I am married with 2 children and I currently work as a presenter/producer with the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria from 2012 till date. My parents are late Elder Jeremiah ABoyomi Onibiyo and Mrs. Roseline Onibiyo.
“I have read line for line the malicious, injurious (allegations) post made against me about posts on the late Agom Adamawa curfew in Kaduna and others attacking the person of his excellency, the governor of Kaduna State, Mallam NAsir El-Rufai, the President of the federal republic, general Muhammadu Buhari and others.
“I wish to state categorically that I have nothing to do with the post. My Facebook account with the name SMG Onibiyo was hacked pre-2015. I had since reported same to Facebook and while I could not recover the account, I opened another in the name Segun Onibiyo, which was equally hacked. I had since stopped using Facebook in those aforementioned names and instead continued the use of 2 other accounts – MrJejeSupreme and Miongs Communications – as medium of facebooking.
“I am a journalist and understand full well the implication of attacking public figures or individuals in private or public space. I may have my opinion on issues but I will never in any way attack anyone in such injurious manner, especially on Facebook or anywhere else.
“I want my name cleared for any form of attack on personalities as I do not have access to the FB account where these allegations were posted. Family members and friends have always called to ask if I sent them pictures and even pornographic image, which I have always explained I did not. I am an upright individual and family and friends can attest to my character, even on my program on radio – Oga Jeje.
In conclusion, once again, my account SMG Onibyo was hacked pre-2015 and I have since then moved on and not on Facebook in that name. I reported the hack to Facebook but not to any security agency as I did not envisage the threat it could pose”.
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Will Facebook activate War Room for 2019 elections in Nigeria?
Social media giant, Facebook on Monday said it has not disbanded the election war room set up to proactively address potential problems related to electoral abuses identified by its technology in real time.
TheNewsGuru (TNG) reports Facebook Vice President of Product Management, Guy Rosen made this known, following questions that the social media giant had disbanded the widely publicized War Room in favour of a strategic response team.
“The war room was effective and we’re not disbanding it, we’re going to do more things like this. The war room will be operational ahead of major events, and it still stands.
“It was effective for our work in both the Brazil and US elections which is why it’s going to be expanded, not disbanded,” Guy said.
As Nigeria approaches the 2019 elections, it remains to be known if Facebook will expand the election war room to address potential problems related to electoral abuses in the country.
The Facebook Product Management Vice President did not immediately respond to query if the election war room will serve for 2019 elections in the country.
The social media platform launched its war room at its Menlo Park headquarters in California in October to serve as a nerve centre for the fight against misinformation and manipulation by foreign actors trying to influence elections.
The measure came after Facebook was accused of doing too little to prevent misinformation efforts by Russia and others in the 2016 US election.
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Under fire Facebook COO says company firmly against hate
Under fire from series of scandals and fiascos Facebook has found itself in, Chief Operating Officer (COO) at the social media company, Sheryl Sandberg, has said the firm stands firmly against hate.
This is especially following accusations that Facebook played into an anti-Semitic narrative against Mr. George Soros, a Hungarian-American investor and philanthropist.
“Being Jewish is a core part of who I am and our company stands firmly against hate. The idea that our work has been interpreted as anti-Semitic is abhorrent to me — and deeply personal,” Sandberg said on Wednesday.
Facebook’s outgoing Head of Communications and Policy, Elliot Schrage, while sharing details about communications operations, said the social media giant hired Definers, a Washington DC PR firm, to do work on Mr. Soros.
“In January 2018, investor and philanthropist George Soros attacked Facebook in a speech at Davos, calling us a “menace to society”. We had not heard such criticism from him before and wanted to determine if he had any financial motivation. Definers researched this using public information.
“Later, when the “Freedom from Facebook” campaign emerged as a so-called grassroots coalition, the team asked Definers to help understand the groups behind them. They learned that George Soros was funding several of the coalition members.
“They prepared documents and distributed these to the press to show that this was not simply a spontaneous grassroots movement,” Schrage narrated.
He, however, stated that Facebook did not hire the Washington DC PR firm to create or distribute fake news, stressing that responsibility for decisions rests on him and that CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Sandberg relied on him to manage the communications team without controversy.
“I knew and approved of the decision to hire Definers and similar firms. I should have known of the decision to expand their mandate. Over the past decade, I built a management system that relies on the teams to escalate issues if they are uncomfortable about any project, the value it will provide or the risks that it creates. That system failed here and I’m sorry I let you all down. I regret my own failure here,” he said.
However, Sandberg took full responsibility for the communications team and their work and for the PR firms that work with Facebook.
“I truly believe we have a world class Comms team and I want to acknowledge the enormous pressure the team has faced over the past year. When I read the story in New York Times last week, I didn’t remember a firm called Definers.
“I asked our team to look into the work Definers did for us and to double-check whether anything had crossed my desk. Some of their work was incorporated into materials presented to me and I received a small number of emails where Definers was referenced.
“I also want to emphasize that it was never anyone’s intention to play into an anti-Semitic narrative against Mr. Soros or anyone else,” the Facebook COO said.