Facebook removes exposed user data, associated with two apps, stored on Amazon servers
5 years, 9 months ago

Facebook removes exposed user data, associated with two apps, stored on Amazon servers

Firstpost  

Cultura Colectiva said all of its Facebook records came from user interactions with its three pages on Facebook Facebook Inc said on Wednesday that it removed public databases containing its user data on Amazon.com Inc’s cloud servers after cybersecurity firm UpGuard discovered millions of exposed records. UpGuard’s Cyber Risk team announced in a blog post on Wednesday that Mexico City-based news website Cultura Colectiva had used Amazon servers to openly store 540 million records on Facebook users, including identification numbers, comments, reactions and account names. Cultura Colectiva said in a statement that all of its Facebook records came from user interactions with its three pages on Facebook and is the same information publicly accessible to anyone browsing those pages. Facebook later announced changes aimed at protecting user data, including an audit of at least thousands of apps that have the right to access Facebook user data.

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History of this topic

Facebook faces another user data leak, researchers reveal
7 months ago

Facebook faces another user data leak, researchers reveal

India TV News  

Cybersecurity researchers have reported an alleged data leak which involve at least one lakh users of Facebook which appeared on a data breach forum. The team from CyberPeace, a New Delhi-based non-profit organisation alleged that 1,00,000 lines of fresh user data from Facebook have surfaced on a data breach forum. “Facebook faces potential reputational damage due to concerns about data …

Signal Ads Seemingly Banned by Facebook for Showing How it Exploits User Data
3 years, 8 months ago

Signal Ads Seemingly Banned by Facebook for Showing How it Exploits User Data

News 18  

That Facebook uses, and to a large extent exploits user data openly and widely to serve its commercial purposes is really to nobody’s surprise any longer. Facebook was not into that idea.” Facebook’s collected data includes details such as occupation, most streamed or read content, live GPS coordinates, sexual preference, religious beliefs, food allergies, shopping history and more. The series …

Explained | How Facebook’s recent data breach affect its users
3 years, 8 months ago

Explained | How Facebook’s recent data breach affect its users

The Hindu  

Facebook has suffered yet another data breach, only this time, private information from 533 million accounts have been leaked online. Even the company’s founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s private credentials are part of the larger leaked data set from 2019. Private information of users was primarily obtained by exploiting Facebook’s contact importer feature that allows users to find friends on …

What Really Caused Facebook's 500M-User Data Leak?
55 years ago

What Really Caused Facebook's 500M-User Data Leak?

Wired  

Since Saturday, a massive trove of Facebook data has circulated publicly, splashing information from roughly 533 million Facebook users across the internet. Or was it the 419 million Facebook user records, including hundreds of millions of phone numbers, names, and Facebook IDs, scraped from the social network by bad actors before a 2018 Facebook policy change, that were exposed publicly …

Explained: Leaked Data of 533mn Facebook Users Reemerges Online, Why FB's Reply is Unconvincing
3 years, 9 months ago

Explained: Leaked Data of 533mn Facebook Users Reemerges Online, Why FB's Reply is Unconvincing

News 18  

Facebook is back in the limelight for all the wrong reasons, and this time, a new report claims that the personal data of over 533 million users have surfaced on a hacker forum, practically for free of cost. Both the Business Insider team and Gal reportedly reviewed a sample of the leaked data and verified several records by matching known …

Facebook Data On More Than 500M Accounts Found Online
3 years, 9 months ago

Facebook Data On More Than 500M Accounts Found Online

News 18  

Details from more than 500 million Facebook users have been found available on a website for hackers. According to that publication, it has info from 106 countries including phone numbers, Facebook IDs, full names, locations, birthdates, and email addresses. In 2018, the social media giant disabled a feature that allowed users to search for one another via phone number following …

Facebook faces new UK class action
3 years, 11 months ago

Facebook faces new UK class action

The Hindu  

Facebook is facing a second London High Court class action over allegations it failed to protect the personal details of about one million people in England and Wales, in the latest lawsuit to spring from a scandal over data harvesting. Journalist and writer Peter Jukes said on Tuesday he had filed a lawsuit for unspecified but "substantial" damages three years …

CBI books Cambridge Analytica over Facebook data theft
3 years, 11 months ago

CBI books Cambridge Analytica over Facebook data theft

Hindustan Times  

The Central Bureau of Investigation has registered a case against Alexander Nix of British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica and Aleksandr Kogan of Global Science Research Limited, UK, for allegedly harvesting personal data of up to 562,000 Indians from Facebook for commercial purposes, officials said on Friday. The agency said that the app illegally collected additional unauthorised data of users …

CBI Registers Case Against Cambridge Analytica, Global Science Research for Illegal Data Harvesting
3 years, 11 months ago

CBI Registers Case Against Cambridge Analytica, Global Science Research for Illegal Data Harvesting

News 18  

The Central Bureau of Investigation has booked UK-based Cambridge Analytica and Global Science Research Ltd for illegally harvesting data of Facebook users in India for commercial purposes, officials said on Friday. The action came after a preliminary enquiry into the matter which showed that Global Science Research had created an app “thisisyourdigitallife” which was authorised by Facebook to collect specific …

CBI books Cambridge Analytica, Global Science Research for illegally harvesting data of Facebook users
3 years, 11 months ago

CBI books Cambridge Analytica, Global Science Research for illegally harvesting data of Facebook users

India TV News  

The Central Bureau of Investigation has filed a case against UK-based Cambridge Analytica and Global Science Research Ltd. It alleged that they were involved in illegal harvesting of personal data of 5.62 lakh Indian Facebook users for commercial purposes. The CBI's action came after a preliminary enquiry into the matter which showed that Global Science Research had created an app …

Amazon, TikTok, Facebook, Others Ordered To Explain What They Do With User Data
4 years ago

Amazon, TikTok, Facebook, Others Ordered To Explain What They Do With User Data

NPR  

Amazon, TikTok, Facebook, Others Ordered To Explain What They Do With User Data Enlarge this image toggle caption Eric Piermont/AFP/Getty Images Eric Piermont/AFP/Getty Images Updated Wednesday at 6:30 a.m. ET The Federal Trade Commission is demanding that nine social media and tech companies share details on how they harness users' data and what they do with the information. The inquiry …

Facebook — The beleaguered king of social media
4 years, 4 months ago

Facebook — The beleaguered king of social media

The Hindu  

A recent article in The Wall Street Journal spoke of a political problem in Facebook’s India operations that hit home hard. Editorial | Data power: On Facebook and BJP India, as the biggest market for the company’s eponymous social media platform and its messaging utility WhatsApp, is widely exposed to the data-sucking machines that operate behind the friendly facades of …

Facebook acknowledges that it shared data of some inactive users with third-party apps, says the issue has now been fixed
4 years, 6 months ago

Facebook acknowledges that it shared data of some inactive users with third-party apps, says the issue has now been fixed

Firstpost  

Facebook says that from the past several months, approximately 5,000 developers continued to receive user data even after they were inactive for over 90 days. Facebook says that from the past several months, approximately 5,000 third-party app developers continued to receive the data that people had previously authorised, even after they were inactive on Facebook for over 90 days. Facebook …

Facebook sues data analytics firm for harvesting users data
4 years, 10 months ago

Facebook sues data analytics firm for harvesting users data

The Hindu  

Facebook has filed a federal lawsuit in California court against New Jersey-based data analytics firm OneAudience for secretly harvesting its users’ data. According to the lawsuit, OneAudience improperly accessed and collected user data from Facebook and other social media companies by paying App developers to install a malicious Software Development Kit in their apps. In November last year, Facebook and …

Facebook investigating data breach where names, phone numbers of over 267 million users was reportedly exposed
5 years ago

Facebook investigating data breach where names, phone numbers of over 267 million users was reportedly exposed

Firstpost  

The database was apparently made available for download last week on an online hacker forum that apparently belonged to a crime group. Facebook on Thursday said it is investigating a report that a database containing names and phone numbers of more than 267 million users was exposed online. Comparitech said that security researcher Bob Diachenko spotted the database, which was …

Google and Facebook's business models are a threat to human rights: Amnesty International
5 years, 1 month ago

Google and Facebook's business models are a threat to human rights: Amnesty International

Firstpost  

The report said the company’s practice of vacuuming up personal data in order to feed voracious advertising businesses represents an unprecedented assault on privacy rights Amnesty International issued a scathing indictment of the world’s dominant internet corporations, arguing in a new report that Google and Facebook should be forced to abandon what it calls their surveillance-based business model because it …

Documents show how Facebook harnessed user data
5 years, 2 months ago

Documents show how Facebook harnessed user data

The Hindu  

Leaked documents from a civil suit against Facebook show how the social network aimed to employ user data as a tool for bargaining and to manipulate competitors, NBC News reported on Wednesday. Some 7,000 pages of documents reveal how Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg and his team harnessed users’ personal information to reward partners by giving them preferential data, while depriving …

Facebook used user data as a weapon against rivals, offered it up as a sop to friends: Report
5 years, 2 months ago

Facebook used user data as a weapon against rivals, offered it up as a sop to friends: Report

Firstpost  

A trove of 7,000 pages of leaked documents shows exactly how Facebook leveraged user data against rivals. The documents were originally obtained by NBC from British investigative journalist Duncan Campbell, which shows how Facebook would reward favoured companies by giving them greater access to user data. The documents also highlighted that when a messaging app became popular and threatened Facebook’s …

Facebook suspends thousands of apps over Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal
5 years, 3 months ago

Facebook suspends thousands of apps over Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal

Firstpost  

The suspended apps are associated with about 400 developers, Facebook said Facebook Inc said on Friday it has suspended tens of thousands of apps on the social networking platform, as part of the company’s ongoing app developer investigation it began on March 2018 in response to the Cambridge Analytica row. The suspended apps are associated with about 400 developers, Facebook …

Facebook privacy lawsuit to proceed, court calls its views on privacy 'so wrong'
5 years, 4 months ago

Facebook privacy lawsuit to proceed, court calls its views on privacy 'so wrong'

Firstpost  

Facebook argued that users suffered no “tangible” harm during the scandal. A federal judge on Monday ordered Facebook Inc to face most of a nationwide lawsuit seeking damages for letting third parties such as Cambridge Analytica access users’ private data, calling the social media company’s views on privacy “so wrong.” While dismissing some claims, US District Judge Vince Chhabria in …

Facebook given a deadline to provide researchers with data to study its impact on democracy
5 years, 4 months ago

Facebook given a deadline to provide researchers with data to study its impact on democracy

Firstpost  

Facebook had granted the 83 scholars selected for the project access to “only a portion of what they were told they could expect," A group of philanthropies working with Facebook Inc to study the social network’s impact on democracy threatened on Tuesday to quit, saying the company had failed to make data available to researchers as pledged. The funders said …

Twitter apologises and admits to user data leak
5 years, 5 months ago

Twitter apologises and admits to user data leak

India TV News  

Twitter admits to inadvertently sharing users data with advertising and third-party partners, owing to the breach and identify privacy flaw and regretting the outcome. As per Twitter's blog post posted on Tuesday, the user information that could have been shared without permission could include country code and details of users engagement with ad and information about the ad. Also, read: …

U.S. trade commission sues Cambridge Analytica for duping FB users
5 years, 5 months ago

U.S. trade commission sues Cambridge Analytica for duping FB users

The Hindu  

The US trade commission has filed a lawsuit against Cambridge Analytica, accusing the UK-based data company of adopting “deceptive tactics” to obtain personal information of Facebook users, a day after it imposed a $USD 5 billion fine on the social media giant for privacy violations. The Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday alleged that Cambridge Analytica, its former CEO Alexander Nix …

Facebook could have shown its commitment to privacy by rolling out this feature
5 years, 8 months ago

Facebook could have shown its commitment to privacy by rolling out this feature

Live Mint  

Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg stood on stage Tuesday at the company’s annual F8 conference in San Jose, California, in front of a giant screen sharing a simple message: “ The future is private." “It’s going to take time," Zuckerberg said of Facebook’s privacy-focused future. Secure messaging is also difficult to implement, and “there are a lot of …

Facebook being investigated for unauthorised storage of up to 1.5 million email IDs
5 years, 8 months ago

Facebook being investigated for unauthorised storage of up to 1.5 million email IDs

Firstpost  

Facebook said it may have “unintentionally uploaded” email contacts of up to 1.5 million new users New York Attorney General Letitia James said on Thursday she is investigating Facebook Inc’s unauthorised storage of up to 1.5 million Facebook users’ email contact databases, the latest privacy issue to affect the U.S. social media giant. Last week, Facebook said it may have …

Facebook investigated in Ireland over mishandled passwords
5 years, 8 months ago

Facebook investigated in Ireland over mishandled passwords

CNN  

London CNN Business — Ireland’s data regulator has opened an investigation into Facebook for mishandling the passwords for hundreds of millions of its users. The probe announced Thursday by the Irish Data Protection Commission is the latest in a series of privacy and data investigations targeting Facebook, and could result in billions of dollars in penalties. The Irish regulator, which …

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg leveraged user data as 'bargaining chip' against rivals
5 years, 8 months ago

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg leveraged user data as 'bargaining chip' against rivals

Firstpost  

Facebook rewarded companies that it favoured by giving them access to the data of its users. The documents obtained by NBC from a British investigative journalist Duncan Campbell, include emails, web chats, presentations, spreadsheets, and meeting summaries which show how Facebook would reward favoured companies by giving them greater access to user data. According to the documents, Facebook gave Amazon …

Facebook users' data exposed for an unknown period of time on Amazon public servers: Report
5 years, 9 months ago

Facebook users' data exposed for an unknown period of time on Amazon public servers: Report

Firstpost  

In yet another blow to Facebook’s data privacy concerns, researchers have indicated that the Facebook app developers left hundreds of millions of user records visible to anyone on public cloud servers. Australian cybersecurity startup company UpGuard has detailed that two third-party developed Facebook app datasets have been found exposed to the internet. We are committed to working with the developers …

Facebook removes over 540 million exposed user records stored on Amazon's servers
5 years, 9 months ago

Facebook removes over 540 million exposed user records stored on Amazon's servers

India Today  

Facebook is in soup - again. Just last month, it was reported that Account passwords of nearly 600 million Facebook users, that were stored in plain text, were accessible by over 20,000 Facebook employees. And now nearly two weeks later, a smilar report suggesting that millions records of Facebook users were exposed on Amazon's servers. According to a Bloomberg report, …

Millions of Facebook records found on Amazon cloud servers
5 years, 9 months ago

Millions of Facebook records found on Amazon cloud servers

Live Mint  

Facebook Inc. user data is still showing up in places it shouldn’t. The discovery shows that a year after the Cambridge Analytica scandal exposed how unsecure and widely disseminated Facebook users’ information is online, companies that control that information at every step still haven’t done enough to seal up private data. In one instance, Mexico City-based digital platform Cultura Colectiva, …

Facebook staff had access to hundreds of millions of people’s passwords
5 years, 9 months ago

Facebook staff had access to hundreds of millions of people’s passwords

CNN  

New York CNN Business — Facebook is back with another mea culpa. This time, the company acknowledges that it mishandled sensitive passwords for hundreds of millions of its users, primarily those who use its Facebook Lite product. On Thursday, Facebook said it didn’t properly mask the passwords of hundreds of millions of its users and stored them as plain text …

Facebook hasn't done much to reduce data privacy fears post Cambridge Analytica scandal
5 years, 9 months ago

Facebook hasn't done much to reduce data privacy fears post Cambridge Analytica scandal

Firstpost  

It has been a year since the Cambridge Analytica expose burst into our consciousness, revealing how billionaire donor Robert Mercer managed to assemble a team of data experts to hack key elections. Facebook claims about 0.5 million Indians were potentially affected by the data leak and this was thanks to just 355 individuals downloaded the ’thisisyourdigitallife’ app and took the …

Zuckerberg's Performance in Senate Testimony: Takeaways and Implications
6 years, 8 months ago

Zuckerberg's Performance in Senate Testimony: Takeaways and Implications

Live Mint  

Mark Zuckerberg's testimony before the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees was marked by both challenges and moments of clarity. While he faced tough questions about Facebook's privacy policy, data collection practices, and the potential for misuse of its platform, he managed to defend his company's position and assure lawmakers that he is taking steps to address the issues raised. However, …

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