Incidents

Facebook faces criminal investigation for violating privacy agreements

Apparently it is impossible for Facebook to get away from the problems. According to an ethical hacking training expert from the International Institute of Cyber Security, the social network faces an investigation by federal agents due to its policy for the management and exchange of data with third parties.

According to the reports, a grand jury would
have already subpoenaed documents from relevant actors in the manufacturing
industry of smartphones and other devices, accused of having accessed
information from hundreds of millions of Facebook accounts.

According to experts in the ethical hacking
training, Facebook would have allowed Bing,
the Microsoft search engine, to access almost all the contacts of any Facebook
user without consent. In addition, the social network would have allowed
services like Netflix and Spotify to access the private messages of thousands
of users.

Shortly thereafter, Facebook denied such
claims, stating that none of the aforementioned companies have accessed the
information of users without consent, reported the ethical hacking training
experts.

However, shortly before this information was
revealed, Konstantinos Papamiltiadis, director of Platforms and Developer
Programs for Facebook, said:  “Users
can access Facebook through devices or platforms created by other companies,
like Yahoo, Apple and Amazon; we call this ‘integration partners’. In addition,
we want people to enjoy more experience, such as accessing the recommendations
of their Facebook friends on services like Netflix, YouTube, Spotify, among
others.

Nonprofit organizations dedicated to the
protection of privacy ensure that Facebook violated an agreement with the U.S.
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for the purpose of sharing the information of
social network users with their partners. Unfortunately for Facebook, this is
not the first time that the social network is marked by undue practices, such
as the Cambridge Analytica scandal. If the research is unfavorable for
Facebook, the social network could face a billionaire fine from the FTC. 

According to some media reports, Facebook is
cooperating with the investigation of federal agencies.

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