Re:50M Facebook profiles harvested for Cambridge Analytica i...
by untog on Saturday March 17, 2018 @06:11PM
(#16609324)
No, it's worse, they just gave it away for free.
Until 2014 or so an app could request permission to view almost any data a user stores on Facebook. That's not great, but hey, you could argue it's not Facebook's fault that people don't understand permission prompts (I'd disagree with you, but...). But those same prompts allowed users to give away their friend's data, so absolutely anyone you're friends with could take some stupid personality test and give away your information in the process, and there was no way you'd even know.
Re:50M Facebook profiles harvested for Cambridge Analytica i...
by Spooky23 on Saturday March 17, 2018 @06:40PM
(#16609426)
You always need to parse statements like this very carefully. Pretty much any other company who isn't providing your information to others says "we do not share your data with unaffiliated entities..."
Facebook said that they don't sell your information. Which is true -- they aren't a data broker. But they implicitly state that your data is shared, subject to the limited controls available. You cannot stop Amazon and Facebook from sharing, for example.
So if you believe Facebook sells your information, then you also believe that Facebook is directly lying about it on a help page about that specific topic. Sometimes conspiracy theories are true, so it's not impossible that that's what happening, but it's not like Facebook is openly selling your information.