Facebook’s data deals are under criminal investigation

New York Times:

> A grand jury in New York has subpoenaed records from at least two prominent makers of smartphones and other devices, according to two people who were familiar with the requests and who insisted on anonymity to discuss confidential legal matters. Both companies had entered into partnerships with Facebook, gaining broad access to the personal information of hundreds of millions of its users.
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> The companies were among more than 150, including Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Sony, that had cut sharing deals with the world’s dominant social media platform. The agreements, previously reported in The New York Times, let the companies see users’ friends, contact information and other data, sometimes without consent. Facebook has phased out most of the partnerships over the past two years.

And:

> The disclosures about Cambridge last year thrust Facebook into the worst crisis of its history. Then came news reports last June and December that Facebook had given business partners — including makers of smartphones, tablets and other devices — deep access to users’ personal information, letting some companies effectively override users’ privacy settings.
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> The sharing deals empowered Microsoft’s Bing search engine to map out the friends of virtually all Facebook users without their explicit consent, and allowed Amazon to obtain users’ names and contact information through their friends. Apple was able to hide from Facebook users all indicators that its devices were even asking for data.

That last sentence seems to imply that Apple acted in bad faith, purposely hiding data requests. Seems unlikely. Me just being naive? Am I misinterpreting the writing here?



2 thoughts on “Facebook’s data deals are under criminal investigation

  1. There was reporting last year on exactly what this data sharing was intended to be (to work with other Facebook apps etc.) What Facebook did with it is hard to say, but Apple did not hide it for their own nefarious purposes. Cook dislikes and distrusts Facebook for a reason. Reporting like this is worded intentionally to sensationalize.

  2. The Times, which I subscribe to, has always had a bit of a bug up heir nether parts for Apple. And I don’t believe what they say about Apple hiding their accessing users data. I look forward to hearing Apple’s response.

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