Facebook Cracking Down on Platform Abuse

[Brink]

Protecting people’s information is the most important thing we do at Facebook. What happened with Cambridge Analytica was a breach of Facebook’s trust. More importantly, it was a breach of the trust people place in Facebook to protect their data when they share it. As Mark Zuckerberg explained in his post, we are announcing some important steps for the future of our platform. These steps involve taking action on potential past abuse and putting stronger protections in place to prevent future abuse.

People use Facebook to connect with friends and others using all kinds of apps. Facebook’s platform helped make apps social — so your calendar could show your friends’ birthdays, for instance. To do this, we allowed people to log into apps and share who their friends were and some information about them.

As people used the Facebook platform in new ways, we strengthened the rules. We required that developers get people’s permission before they access the data needed to run their apps – for instance, a photo sharing app has to get specific permission from you to access your photos. Over the years we’ve introduced more guardrails, including in 2014, when we began reviewing apps that request certain data before they could launch, and introducing more granular controls for people to decide what information to share with apps. These actions would prevent any app like Aleksandr Kogan’s from being able to access so much data today.

Even with these changes, we’ve seen abuse of our platform and the misuse of people’s data, and we know we need to do more. We have a responsibility to everyone who uses Facebook to make sure their privacy is protected. That’s why we’re making changes to prevent abuse. We’re going to set a higher standard for how developers build on Facebook, what people should expect from them, and, most importantly, from us. We will:

1. Review our platform. We will investigate all apps that had access to large amounts of information before we changed our platform in 2014 to reduce data access, and we will conduct a full audit of any app with suspicious activity. If we find developers that misused personally identifiable information, we will ban them from our platform.
2. Tell people about data misuse. We will tell people affected by apps that have misused their data. This includes building a way for people to know if their data might have been accessed via “thisisyourdigitallife.” Moving forward, if we remove an app for misusing data, we will tell everyone who used it.
3. Turn off access for unused apps. If someone hasn’t used an app within the last three months, we will turn off the app’s access to their information.
4. Restrict Facebook Login data. We are changing Login, so that in the next version, we will reduce the data that an app can request without app review to include only name, profile photo and email address. Requesting any other data will require our approval.
5. Encourage people to manage the apps they use. We already show people what apps their accounts are connected to and control what data they’ve permitted those apps to use. Going forward, we’re going to make these choices more prominent and easier to manage.
6. Reward people who find vulnerabilities. In the coming weeks we will expand Facebook’s bug bounty program so that people can also report to us if they find misuses of data by app developers.

There’s more work to do, and we’ll be sharing details in the coming weeks about additional steps we’re taking to put people more in control of their data. Some of these updates were already in the works, and some are related to new data protection laws coming into effect in the EU. This week’s events have accelerated our efforts, and these changes will be the first of many we plan to roll out to protect people’s information and make our platform safer.

Source: Cracking Down on Platform Abuse | Facebook Newsroom

See also: Hard Questions: Update on Cambridge Analytica | Facebook Newsroom

 

[goodlad]

If not for my work purposes, I might have never used FB. As my work is dependent on FB I have to use it but I don't use any Apps nor do I save any personal information/even pictures on my account. Other than people knowing my contact number, there's nothing more they can gather data from my account - even in the case FB is hacked

 

[mrjimphelps]

In my opinion, the above post from Facebook is bogus. Facebook's entire business model consists of vacuuming up as much user information as they can, then packaging and selling it. In other words, Facebook itself is one big data breach. Not only that, but it seems that everyone and his brother want to give you some "app" if you'll agree to let them scan through your friends list.

In fact, just about all of the free stuff you do on the web (webmail, news sites, etc.) is paid for by the provider scanning through whatever you do on their site, gathering all of the info that they can, and then packaging and selling that info.

Even some of the paid sites do this.

So why is Cambridge Analytica being singled out here? This does not pass the smell test.

 

[Ranger4]

Mark Zuckerberg has come out with a half hearted sorry, but he actually means he is sorry they got caught. This whole episode is a shocking breach of private data details & we must have laws that make exchanging private data a serious criminal offence.

 

[Brds7t7]

Deleted it years ago and never looked back.

I had a life before Facebook and life has continued the same ever since! I really feel for people who have to be tied to that awful site. Be it through work, or personal reasons. It's an awful site, full of fake news, hate spreading and no morals or respect from its owner who says the same spiel every time they get caught out!

I've just read Mozilla has pulled its Facebook ads and other companies should follow! It's time to teach Facebook that they need to be held responsible. They knew about the data Cambridge Analytica had collected in 2015 - they should have done more to protect users data!

 

[SIW2]

It has been going for years - since at least 2012.
The great Cambridge Analytica conspiracy theory | Spectator USA

 

[Brds7t7]

It has been going for years - since at least 2012.
The great Cambridge Analytica conspiracy theory | Spectator USA

Must admit that I've never believed all the articles saying these companies have swayed the Brexit/Trump elections. Although I can't speak for others, no website ever swayed my decision in the way I voted in the EU referendum.

I still stand by the fact that Facebook is just not a nice site to visit. I joined it in the early days, just to get back in touch with some people. I watched it change a lot over the years. I got so sick of scrolling through BS articles, posts from apps and games which I would never install.

It just seemed to become a more toxic place to me, and that was the reason I bailed out. It just seemed so far removed from the site I originally joined, and it wasn't a fun place to be.

 

[mrjimphelps]

I think Facebook likes it when people go off on a rant, because they gather lots of very accurate and detailed information about those people. This allows Facebook to develop very accurate and complete profiles on those people. Facebook then packages and sells that information and makes lots of money doing so -- they have to get their money from somewhere, because you don't have to pay to have a Facebook user account. And when Facebook was purchased a few years ago, it sold for billions of dollars. To me, that indicates that the information FB has on its users is extremely detailed and accurate, and therefore extremely valuable.

Cambridge Analytica is not the culprit here; but they were the ones who took the fall, for some reason.

 

[Brds7t7]

Cambridge Analytica is not the culprit here; but they were the ones who took the fall, for some reason.

From what I've been reading over the past few days, I'd say both companies are to blame. Facebook shouldn't have allowed it to happen in the first place and should have chased it up when they asked them to submit their data, which CA (apparently) failed to do.

Cambridge Analytica will probably bear the brunt of the blame though, as Facebook always seems to get away with these things, and look like they've been the ones trying to protect people.

Same old same old really! They're all just as bad as each other to be honest.

Just my opinion of course.

 

[JoWazzoo]

Zucks performance on CNN last night was pathetic. Sorry FB is NOT a victim. Too - you KNEW all this was going on and previously had a cavalier attitude.

BTW looking for an alternative, check out Minds.com

 

[lehnerus2000]

Facebook's entire business model consists of vacuuming up as much user information as they can, then packaging and selling it.

Agreed.

So why is Cambridge Analytica being singled out here? This does not pass the smell test.

They're being singled out as they got caught in a "video sting" by some journalists in the UK.

They also got "dobbed in" by a whistleblower.

Mark Zuckerberg has come out with a half hearted sorry, but he actually means he is sorry they got caught.

Just like a lot of CEOs and politicians.

 

[Marie SWE]

When this sort of things is revealed, it feels pretty good to have nothing to do with Facebook, Yahoo, and Google...
I would like to say Microsoft as well, but i need some of Microsoft's OS
The internet giants have far too much power and they evade taxes, laws and moral responsibility. They get away with it all.. a little bit technical and difficult to understand user conditions and a lot of text so no one is going to read it all. That's it.

 

[Botard]

At least Facebook look promising their plan and of course the government in every country who benefited the site should have attention that plan for the abuse including the smartphone companies. I guess that's all they want to hear the people in facebook. They don't care much about data breach as long as they can login the site plus knowing the government is doing their job the people paid for. And for what the people care about is what they hold everyday. I wonder where it gonna ends this vast flow. Facebook today is populated not only fake news but also fake people who keep posting something just to show how good they are, what they have or what they are now. Sometimes, even the people you knew, you got unfriend because of not liking their post.

 

[Botard]

Wth! I thought the sorry is for us, seems for liberal.

 

[Barman58]

I just read this ...

"She said that although people were more relaxed in the US about privacy, that may change given the "wake up call" of the Facebook data breach."

EU warns US on data control flaws - BBC News

Cannot say I agree that US members are less concerned about security, the exact opposite is the case I believe

 

[mrjimphelps]

"She said that although people were more relaxed in the US about privacy, that may change given the "wake up call" of the Facebook data breach."

The way this is worded, and the way this is being reported, is that it's not a data breach if Facebook vacuums up all of your personal data; but it is a data breach if someone else is able to extract it from Facebook.

Why is Facebook exempted from being guilty here? Are we not supposed to be concerned that Facebook has more data on us than the government has?

 

[SIW2]

Google probably has more on you than Fbook.

 

[Brds7t7]

Google probably has more on you than Fbook.

Weird to think that these companies probably know more about me than I know about myself!

I try and keep a small footprint online, but doubt it makes any difference.

 

[mrjimphelps]

Google probably has more on you than Fbook.

There is no doubt that this is true. Every site you go to is running Google scripts; Google is vacuuming up info on just about every website you visit. Google is the biggest of the big brothers. No one else is even in the same league as Google.

But this post is about Facebook, and their alleged caring about the privacy of my data. If they really cared about the privacy of my data, they wouldn't make money off of my data.

 

[dg1261]

Google probably has more on you than Fbook.

I don't subscribe to that opinion, though it kind of depends on what you mean and it's more nuanced.

And contrary to a lot of blathering from other people, Google does not "collect all your information and sell it to the highest bidder." They do not share it with anyone. Google is an advertising company, and what they know about you is their crown jewels. They aren't letting anyone have that.

Google does not tell advertisers, "You want to get in front of people who meet characteristics A, B and C? Here's a list of those people." They tell advertisers, "If you want to get in front of people who meet characteristics A, B and C, give us your ad and we'll select the people to send it to."

The advertisers don't know who you are. Google does, but nobody else is finding out what Google knows about you. (Other than maybe the NSA and those disturbing secret National Security Letters.)

Should we be concerned about how much Google knows about us? That's a whole other discussion.

Facebook has a different business model, though. Not only do they collect as much as they can, they cross-compile it with your friends and friends of friends. I don't believe Google does that. And then they make all that available to others outside Facebook.

That's the issue here. Cambridge Analytica paid Facebook for that data, and FB gave it to them. CA may even still have all that data--they say they deleted it, but how do you prove that? The horse has already left the barn.

FB gave them an API, which CA used to get not only data on individuals, but friends and contacts of those individuals. FB may not have intended for CA to use the data that way, but it's FB's fault for making the data available to CA through the API. There was no breach, no hack, and it appears CA did nothing illegal--at least, with respect to FB.

Did CA do other illegal stuff? Quite likely; from the undercover videos they're a really shady company whose purpose is surreptitious manipulation of voters to influence elections. Sounds like fraud to me, but I haven't researched the exact legal statutes they've broken. They didn't directly hack the election results, they swayed the voters.

But I do believe this shows how much more dangerous and disturbing Facebook is than Google.