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Facebook's Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation (cnn.com) 49

Posted by BeauHD from the poor-business-practices dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: Federal prosecutors are conducting a criminal investigation into data deals Facebook struck with some of the world's largest technology companies (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternative source), intensifying scrutiny of the social media giant's business practices as it seeks to rebound from a year of scandal and setbacks. 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. 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. "We are cooperating with investigators and take those probes seriously," a Facebook spokesman said in a statement. "We've provided public testimony, answered questions and pledged that we will continue to do so."
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Facebook's Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation More

Facebook's Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

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  • Didn't we know this already?

    • Law enforcement is behind the curve a bit. They're all like: "Oh hey these guys have been breaking the law! WTF guys? You said you weren't doing that!"

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Mashiki ( 184564 )

      With new technology, the rule of thumb is governments are 10-20 years behind what's actually happening today.

  • so what? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Apologies will be made, a fine will be paid, and betterment will be promised, but as usual nobody will go to prison or loose his fortune.

  • Impeach Zuck! (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    We've all been waiting for Facebook to go down the same path as Friendster and MySpace so lets just make Facebook disappear.

    • The problem is, even if Facebook goes down another will simply take its place because people never learn.
      Internet people, doubly so.

      Or as Korg would say: "Another day, another Doug."

  • Who Is The Capital Behind Facebook? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by dryriver ( 1010635 ) on Thursday March 14, 2019 @08:43AM (#58272042)
    I remember living in a developing country when Facebook first became popular, and getting _inundated_ with daily requests to "join X on Facebook". I smelled a rat and didn't. What was frightening was the _crazy_ adoption rate of this mediocre web service - _everyone_ I knew was putting pressure on everyone else _they_ knew to also be on Facebook. People kept telling me "I can't find you on Facebook, I can't find you on Facebook". That doesn't happen without Billions of Dollars in capital behind the first push of the website. Why would millions suddenly rush to put their photo and personal data on such a simple and poorly designed website, and one with a name directly referencing "Face Indexing" or "Face Data Collection" to boot? It takes money to pull this off. LOTS of money. That money probably - even back then - came from various big industries desperate to collect as much personal data about everyone around the world as possible. Thus Facebook was not a "little Mark Zuckerberg genius startup" at all. This was a heavily industry-funded social media site from day one. And they probably got everyone's data piped to them from Day 1. Facebook _was_ about "connecting people" - but connecting them with industries who want to syphon their personal data away.

    • You cannot moderate a thread that you've commented in.

      Virtual +1, Insightful.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      DARPA LifeLog https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

    • Re:Who Is The Capital Behind Facebook? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Gravis Zero ( 934156 ) on Thursday March 14, 2019 @09:26AM (#58272216)

      What was frightening was the _crazy_ adoption rate of this mediocre web service - _everyone_ I knew was putting pressure on everyone else _they_ knew to also be on Facebook. People kept telling me "I can't find you on Facebook, I can't find you on Facebook". That doesn't happen without Billions of Dollars in capital behind the first push of the website.

      You have greatly underestimated the stupidity of mankind.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I recall when it first launched, Zuckerberg's name wasn't attached to or associated with it at all, and word was the project started with InQTel money.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Shotgun ( 30919 )

      I would respond, but I don't know if you're real. I can't find you on facebook.

      Why were CB radios such a big thing in the 70's.
      Why did everybody have to record every last thing they did on VCR in the 80's?
      Why were so many people putting up lame Geocities web sites in 90's?
      AOL sent out a lot of coffee table coasters, but why were so many people hip to hang out in a chat room in the 00's?

      People in general are desparate for their 15 minutes of fame, and will go to great lengths to stretch it to 15:01. Zuck h

    • Facebook is the capital behind Facebook. By the time FB started becoming popular in developing countries, they had already built up a war chest.

  • Investigate Facebook already (Score:5, Funny)

    by DickBreath ( 207180 ) on Thursday March 14, 2019 @09:58AM (#58272368) Homepage
    If Facebook is to be investigated for a crime, it should be for using PHP.

  • THEY want to stay anonymous? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Ain't that grand!

    Also: Why has nobody commented on this yet?

  • I know the PR people say they're responding, but a number of countries, including Canada, say FB isn't cooperating, or at least not in any measurable way.

  • Not taking sides, but I'm genuinely curious. What have they done that's criminal? There's a very specific, high bar for that.. and none of the articles seem to touch on it.

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