Facebook developers sold user IDs to data brokers
Posted via Canadian Content
Your privacy may have been compromised on Facebook recently.
In another blow to Facebook and the ever increasing privacy concerns surrounding the social web site, fewer than 12 facebook developers have been banned from the site for six months.
The developers being exiled from Facebook are not being named, but the data broker Rapleaf has confirmed they will not be using the information and deleting it from their databases immediately.
The user IDs that were sold are cannot necessarily be used by advertisers by themselves, but combined with other user information matched with the IDs, they could compromise user privacy.
Facebook has recently announced that they will soon introduce a scheme to encrypt user IDs.
This is only one of several privacy concerns surrounding Facebook lately; A lawsuit recently against Zynga (a social games developer) and Facebook alleges that 218 million user IDs -- nearly half of the Facebook population -- were shared with third party advertisers collecting personal details for ad targeting.
Facebook's terms of use specifically promise not to use the data allegedly shared in the lawsuit complaint.
The lawsuit isn't over yet, so the points mentioned in the lawsuit are currently pure speculation. A blog post by Facebook engineer states "Facebook has never sold and will never sell user information.
"We also have zero tolerance for data brokers because they undermine the value that users have come to expect from Facebook."
Original Article: http://www.canadiancontent.net/commtr/facebook-developers-sold-user-ids-data-brokers_1025.html
Posted via Canadian Content
Your privacy may have been compromised on Facebook recently.
In another blow to Facebook and the ever increasing privacy concerns surrounding the social web site, fewer than 12 facebook developers have been banned from the site for six months.
The developers being exiled from Facebook are not being named, but the data broker Rapleaf has confirmed they will not be using the information and deleting it from their databases immediately.
The user IDs that were sold are cannot necessarily be used by advertisers by themselves, but combined with other user information matched with the IDs, they could compromise user privacy.
Facebook has recently announced that they will soon introduce a scheme to encrypt user IDs.
This is only one of several privacy concerns surrounding Facebook lately; A lawsuit recently against Zynga (a social games developer) and Facebook alleges that 218 million user IDs -- nearly half of the Facebook population -- were shared with third party advertisers collecting personal details for ad targeting.
Facebook's terms of use specifically promise not to use the data allegedly shared in the lawsuit complaint.
The lawsuit isn't over yet, so the points mentioned in the lawsuit are currently pure speculation. A blog post by Facebook engineer states "Facebook has never sold and will never sell user information.
"We also have zero tolerance for data brokers because they undermine the value that users have come to expect from Facebook."
Original Article: http://www.canadiancontent.net/commtr/facebook-developers-sold-user-ids-data-brokers_1025.html
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