Facebook suspends controversial data firm Cambridge Analytica

"Facebook allegedly offered advertisers special access to users data and activities, according to documents released by British lawmakers...

A key British lawmaker alleged Wednesday that Facebook maintained “whitelisting agreements” that gave select companies preferential access to valuable user data, echoing a key claim from an app developer that has been embroiled in a lawsuit with the social network in a California court...

'Facebook have clearly entered into whitelisting agreements with certain companies, which meant that after the platform changes in 2014/15 they maintained full access to friends data. It is not clear that there was any user consent for this, nor how Facebook decided which companies should be whitelisted or not.'...

Facebook, which has long said it does not sell user data, did not immediately reply to requests for comment..."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/tech...-by-british-lawmakers/?utm_term=.0efcebe6d23f

 

"Facebook said a bug allowed apps to wrongly access the photos of up to 6.8 million people

In a blog post Friday, the social media giant revealed that the software mishap allowed as many as 1,500 apps to access photos that “people uploaded to Facebook but chose not to post.” The bug occurred during two weeks in September."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...to-6-8-million-people/?utm_term=.0b5dd2cd78ae

 

Facebook's data-sharing deals exposed
December 19, 2018
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-46618582

 

"D.C. attorney general sues Facebook over alleged privacy violations from Cambridge Analytica scandal

The attorney general for the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against Facebook for allowing Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy, to gain access to the names, "likes" and other personal data about tens of millions of the social site's users without their permission...

...[M]arks the first major effort by regulators in the United States to penalize the tech giant for its entanglement with the firm..."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...ommentId=34ae21ea-6d76-4e89-b3ad-074813fb03a6

 

Korean agency to launch Facebook investigation
December 26, 2018
https://www.scmagazine.com/home/security-news/korean-agency-to-launch-facebook-investigation/

 

Cambridge Analytica sister firm pleads guilty, fined £21k for failing to obey UK information commish
January 9, 2019
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/...ica_scl_elections_guilty_plea_ico_21000_fine/

 

Most Facebook users don’t know that it records a list of their interests, new study finds
74 percent of people weren’t aware of Facebook’s methods
January 16, 2019
https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/16/18185312/facebook-interest-ad-targeting-pew-study-privacy-control

 

"U.S. regulators have met to discuss imposing a record-setting fine against Facebook for some of its privacy violations

U.S. regulators have met to discuss imposing a record-setting fine against Facebook for violating a legally binding agreement with the government to protect the privacy of its users' personal data, according to three people familiar with the deliberations but not authorized to speak on the record.

The fine under consideration at the Federal Trade Commission, a privacy and security watchdog that began probing Facebook last year, would mark the first major punishment levied against Facebook in the United States since reports emerged in March that Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy, accessed personal information on about 87 million Facebook users without their knowledge.

The penalty is expected to be much larger than the $22.5 million fine the agency imposed on Google in 2012. That fine set a record for the greatest penalty for violating an agreement with the FTC to improve its privacy practices..."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/tech...ts-privacy-violations/?utm_term=.044bfe9e768d

 

How 2018 became Facebook’s worst year in privacy and security

https://thenextweb.com/syndication/...facebooks-worst-year-in-privacy-and-security/

 

Advocacy groups are pushing the FTC to break up Facebook
January 24, 2019
https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/24/...ak-up-cambridge-analytica-scandal-data-breach

 

UK Data Watchdog Fines Leave.EU, Eldon Insurance

https://www.securityweek.com/uk-data-watchdog-fines-leaveeu-eldon-insurance

 

"The U.S. government [FTC] and Facebook are negotiating a record, multibillion-dollar fine for the company’s privacy lapses..."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/tech...mpanys-privacy-lapses/?utm_term=.4aefcd1d9638

 

"Facebook ‘intentionally and knowingly’ violated U.K. privacy and competition rules, British lawmakers say

British lawmakers on Sunday accused Facebook of having 'intentionally and knowingly violated both data privacy and anti-competition laws' in the country, and they called for investigations into the social media giant’s business practices.

The sharp rebuke came in a 108-page report written by members of Parliament, who in 2017 began a wide-ranging study of Facebook and the spread of malicious content online..."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/tech...british-lawmakers-say/?utm_term=.9b8897d136a1

https://www.theguardian.com/technol...estigation-report-regulation-privacy-law-dcms

 

5 most savage quotes from damning report on the 'digital gangsters' at Facebook
February 20, 2019
https://mashable.com/article/uk-parliament-report-facebook-quotes/