[ April 24, 2024 ]
Facebook reportedly under criminal investigation for secret data-sharing deals. Is this why Facebook was down all day yesterday? Were they conducting a massive purge? Federal prosecutors are probing Facebook’s illicit data-sharing partnerships, reportedly subpoenaing data from smartphone manufacturers as the regulatory walls appear to close in on the beleaguered social media firm. A New York grand jury has subpoenaed two device-makers’ records as part of a criminal investigation into some of the 150+ dubiously legal data partnerships Facebook forged with technology companies and other large corporations, according to sources familiar with the requests who spoke to the New York Times.
https://twitter.com/PamelaGeller/status/1105897810782797825
Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation
Facebook’s offices in Menlo Park, Calif. A federal grand jury is looking at partnerships that gave tech companies broad access to Facebook users’ information.
Story continues below advertisementBy Michael LaForgia, Matthew Rosenberg and Gabriel J.X. Dance, New York Times,
March 13, 2019Federal prosecutors are conducting a criminal investigation into data deals Facebook struck with some of the world’s largest technology companies, 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.”
It is not clear when the grand jury inquiry, overseen by prosecutors with the United States attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York, began or exactly what it is focusing on. Facebook was already facing scrutiny by the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission. And the Justice Department’s securities fraud unit began investigating it after reports that Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm, had improperly obtained the Facebook data of 87 million people and used it to build tools that helped President Trump’s election campaign.
The Justice Department and the Eastern District declined to comment for this article.
The Cambridge investigation, still active, is being run by prosecutors from the Northern District of California. One former Cambridge employee said investigators questioned him as recently as late February. He and three other witnesses in the case, speaking on the condition of anonymity so they would not anger prosecutors, said a significant line of inquiry involved Facebook’s claims that it was misled by Cambridge.
In public statements, Facebook executives had said that Cambridge told the company it was gathering data only for academic purposes. But the fine print accompanying a quiz app that collected the information said it could also be used commercially. Selling user data would have violated Facebook’s rules at the time, yet the social network does not appear to have regularly checked that apps were complying. Facebook deleted the quiz app in December 2015.
The disclosures about Cambridge last year thrust Facebook into the worst crisis of its history. Then came news reports last June and December that Facebook had given business partners — including makers of smartphones, tablets and other devices — deep access to users’ personal information, letting some companies effectively override users’ privacy settings.
The sharing deals empowered Microsoft’s Bing search engine to map out the friends of virtually all Facebook users without their explicit consent, and allowed Amazon to obtain users’ names and contact information through their friends. Apple was able to hide from Facebook users all indicators that its devices were even asking for data.
Privacy advocates said the partnerships seemed to violate a 2011 consent agreement between Facebook and the F.T.C., stemming from allegations that the company had shared data in ways that deceived consumers. The deals also appeared to contradict statements by Mark Zuckerberg and other executives that Facebook had clamped down several years ago on sharing the data of users’ friends with outside developers.
F.T.C. officials, who spent the past year investigating whether Facebook violated the 2011 agreement, are now weighing the sharing deals as they negotiate a possible multibillion-dollar fine. That would be the largest such penalty ever imposed by the trade regulator.
Facebook has aggressively defended the partnerships, saying they were permitted under a provision in the F.T.C. agreement that covered service providers — companies that acted as extensions of the social network.
The company has taken steps in the past year to tackle data misuse and misinformation. Last week, Mr. Zuckerberg unveiled a plan that would begin to pivot Facebook away from being a platform for public sharing and put more emphasis on private communications.
The Truth Must be Told
Your contribution supports independent journalism
Please take a moment to consider this. Now, more than ever, people are reading Geller Report for news they won't get anywhere else. But advertising revenues have all but disappeared. Google Adsense is the online advertising monopoly and they have banned us. Social media giants like Facebook and Twitter have blocked and shadow-banned our accounts. But we won't put up a paywall. Because never has the free world needed independent journalism more.
Everyone who reads our reporting knows the Geller Report covers the news the media won't. We cannot do our ground-breaking report without your support. We must continue to report on the global jihad and the left's war on freedom. Our readers’ contributions make that possible.
Geller Report's independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our work is critical in the fight for freedom and because it is your fight, too.
Please contribute here.
or
Make a monthly commitment to support The Geller Report – choose the option that suits you best.
Quick note: We cannot do this without your support. Fact. Our work is made possible by you and only you. We receive no grants, government handouts, or major funding.Tech giants are shutting us down. You know this. Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Adsense, Pinterest permanently banned us. Facebook, Google search et al have shadow-banned, suspended and deleted us from your news feeds. They are disappearing us. But we are here.
Subscribe to Geller Report newsletter here— it’s free and it’s essential NOW when informed decision making and opinion is essential to America's survival. Share our posts on your social channels and with your email contacts. Fight the great fight.
Follow Pamela Geller on Gettr. I am there. click here.
Follow Pamela Geller on Trump's social media platform, Truth Social. It's open and free.
Remember, YOU make the work possible. If you can, please contribute to Geller Report.
Join The Conversation. Leave a Comment.
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spammy or unhelpful, click the - symbol under the comment to let us know. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.
If you would like to join the conversation, but don't have an account, you can sign up for one right here.
If you are having problems leaving a comment, it's likely because you are using an ad blocker, something that break ads, of course, but also breaks the comments section of our site. If you are using an ad blocker, and would like to share your thoughts, please disable your ad blocker. We look forward to seeing your comments below.
12 Comments
5 years ago
They misspelled “Lifelog” by DARPA. Outage has nothing to do with Q 😉
5 years ago
Agree. After facebook, twitter , even Google, youtube joins lslamofascist gang to support illegals and jihadis
suppress conservative free speech
who is really behind it ? Read more http://tinyurl.com/lgp28rs
They are fascist tools that Left/Liberals are wielding against patriots. Organise and sue them
5 years ago
Reply to
Suresh
I was blocked off there a year ago today!! YEAH! They got tired of my constant anti Muslim and anti FB rants, memes and all around posts. Blocked my IP. I looked at a VPN and decided, why? Glad I didn’t and they did. It was a blessing in disguise.
I am not surprised to see them getting criminal scrutiny. Their so called “campus” is located next to scenic South San Francisco Bay. Down near San Jose. Tidal flats. It was cheap land 25 years ago. About a mile away is Google! Also nearby is Apple. That entire valley is one big tech concentration. Only part I like is Moffat Field where they keep the blimps.
In honor of my release, I post my 2 favorite memes, honoring Zuckerberg and Islam.
5 years ago
anybody wanna buy a couple thousand used servers?
5 years ago
Get off Facebook, you don’t need it. “It’s the eye in the sky, looking at you.”
5 years ago
Live with it. You HAVE NO PRIVACY WITH FAKEBOOK!
This little NERD and his Spanky gang is SELLING everything they know about you to whoever will pay them! Despite what he says is marked “Private”.
To prevent this kind of stuff you have to look at the BUYER and not the SELLER! It’s also why we are losing the DRUG WAR.
Why do we get it ass-backward all the time?
5 years ago
Will this be a new sequel to Clint Eastwood’s move now with the Title “Hang’em High II”
5 years ago
Besides the data breeches, Facebook should also be under investigation for their inane algorithms that selectively ‘targets’ some of us conservatives and what I call ‘freedom fighters’ (like Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer) for the same posts and infraction over and over again, and keeps throwing us in fb jail for it. I’m up to my 31st jailing right now mostly for in the past using the word ‘muzzie’ 6 to 8 years ago BEFORE it was even added to their list of no-nos. This has gotten to the point of ridiculousness as liberals can say any damn vile thing about our president…even wishing him and his family dead…and NOT a thing is done to them…nor is anything done when liberals say vile things about Jews and Christians. But, I call Obama a traitor or say the word ‘muzzie’ (as I refuse to even say or write the word ‘m*slim’) and it’s back to fb jail I go. Selective enforcement by their ‘muzzie’ team of censors. BTW, it’s wise NEVER to post anything personal on FB nor to use their ‘People you might know’ suggestions as that’s full of their ‘spies’ if you will.
5 years ago
Who needs them? I sure have never!
