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Facebook let Netflix and Spotify read users' private messages, NYT reports

Technology Last night
According to a New York Times report, Facebook gave companies like Spotify, Netflix and Microsoft access to users' private data, sometimes without their knowledge. The report alleged that Russian search engine Yandex and China's Huawei also had access to data through partnership agreements as late as 2017.
Photo via @thehill
· 13 hours ago

NEW NYT INVESTIGATION: Internal documents show that Facebook gave, "Netflix and Spotify the ability to read Facebook users’ private messages.”

458 replies 4,879 retweets 4,323 likes
· 13 hours ago

The Times obtained internal Facebook documents showing in intricate detail how Facebook allocated user data to “partner” companies, ranging from to to and . The key deals were all active in 2017. Some remained in place until this year.

34 replies 679 retweets 945 likes
· 13 hours ago

These deals are different in significant respects from the access afforded app makers like the one working for Cambridge Analytica. But in a broad sense they are not. Companies you may never have had a relationship with could see your stuff.

13 replies 305 retweets 608 likes
· 13 hours ago

Facebook allowed Microsoft’s Bing search engine to see the names of virtually all Facebook users’ friends without consent, the records show, and gave Netflix and Spotify the ability to read Facebook users’ private messages.

NYT: Facebook gave some of the world’s largest technology companies more intrusive access to users’ personal data than it has disclosed, effectively exempting those business partners from its usual privacy rules, according to internal records & interviews
125 replies 2,658 retweets 2,539 likes
· 12 hours ago

The list of companies with which Facebook shared your private information includes China's Huawei and Russia's Yandex -- which is to say, companies regarded as partners of Chinese and Russian intelligence.

78 replies 1,979 retweets 1,804 likes
· 12 hours ago

Also the Royal Bank of Canada. Are we still at war with Canada?

13 replies 68 retweets 257 likes
· 11 hours ago

Facebook lied that it was giving unique user IDs to the Kremlin-linked Russian company Yandex. In October, Facebook denied such a partnership. This month, it admitted it to congressional investigators.

6 replies 242 retweets 314 likes
· 10 hours ago

Interesting. It seems back in September, when Sheryl Sandberg testified in the Senate, Sen. had many VERY specific questions about Facebook's "partnership" agreements that almost everyone missed.

9 replies 203 retweets 325 likes
· 12 hours ago

In the summer of 2017, I asked Facebook if it used signals from "third parties such as data brokers" for friend recommendations. Kicking myself for not recognizing the evasion in their answer. 1. FB's answer via email 2 What the NYT found out about PYMK in internal FB docs

11 replies 339 retweets 633 likes
· 10 hours ago

Netflix statement on NYT report: "At no time did we access people’s private messages on Facebook, or ask for the ability to do so.”

15 replies 59 retweets 99 likes
· 10 hours ago

Amazon statement on NYT report: "We use information only in accordance with our privacy policy.”

9 replies 47 retweets 69 likes
· 10 hours ago

Facebook statement on NYT report: "Facebook’s partners don't get to ignore people’s privacy settings, and it’s wrong to suggest that they do."

1 reply 31 retweets 53 likes
· 12 hours ago

The NYT has broken massive stories around Facebook (Cambridge Analytica, Definers), but this latest one feel like the most problematic of them all. It counters nearly everything the company has said about listening to privacy concerns and doing better to protect user data.

7 replies 167 retweets 380 likes
· 10 hours ago

Facebook denied that its dozens of "partners" were able to misuse Facebook users' personal data, but it didn't address explosive new allegations that it gave those companies far broader access to private data than it has previously acknowledged.

43 replies 171 retweets 208 likes

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