Facebook privacy

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Facial Recognition Costs Meta $1.4B in Texas

Lone Star State had sued over unauthorized use of Texans' biometrics

(Newser) - Meta has agreed to a $1.4 billion settlement with Texas in a privacy lawsuit over claims that the tech giant used biometric data of users without their permission, officials said Tuesday. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the settlement is the largest secured by a single state, reports the...

Get Your Facebook Settlement Payment

Portal is now open to file a claim, but don't spend the cash all in one place

(Newser) - For anyone in the US who mindlessly liked cat photos or got into political arguments on Facebook between May 2007 and December 2022, good news: Your internet nickels are almost here, in the form of Meta's $725 million class-action Cambridge Analytica settlement. But, as Stephen Council notes at SFGate...

Facebook Hacker Posts 500M Users' Data

Phone numbers are among the information now available to cybercrooks

(Newser) - The personal information of more than a half-billion Facebook users in 106 countries has been posted in a hacking forum, Business Insider reports. The data include full names, Facebook IDs, phone numbers, locations, birthdates, and bios. Some email addresses are posted, as well. The breach puts the users, 32 million...

Facebook Plans Workaround on Instagram's Age Minimum

Criticism meets internal announcement about allowing users under 13

(Newser) - Two days after saying it needs to do better at protecting its youngest customers, Facebook has said in an internal post that it's developing an Instagram app that would add users under age 13. Federal privacy regulations don't allow children younger than 13 to use the app as...

Woman Must Delete Photos of Grandchildren on Facebook
Woman Must
Delete Photos
of Grandchildren
on Facebook
in case you missed it
May 24, 2020 10:13 AM CDT

Woman Must Delete Photos of Grandchildren on Facebook

Court in Netherlands rules GDPR covers case

(Newser) - A Dutch court has interpreted the General Data Protection Regulation to cover a woman's posting of photos of her grandchildren on Facebook. That means, in this case, she has to take the photos down, the BBC reports, because she lacks the parents' permission to post them. After a rift...

Stephen King Makes Big Move on Social Media

Author has quit Facebook over concerns on 'false information,' privacy

(Newser) - Last month, Facebook decided it wasn't going to bar or fact-check political ads during this election season, nor keep those ads from being targeted to certain groups of people. Now, partly based on that, Stephen King has made his own decision: He has left the social media site for...

Facebook Removes the Word 'Free' From Its Signup Page

Replaces 'free and always will be' with 'quick and easy'

(Newser) - "Hello everyone, it seems that all the warnings were real, facebook use will cost money. If you send this string to 18 different people from your list, your icon will be blue and it will be free for you." Surely you've seen that scam going around Facebook...

Facebook Hit With Biggest FTC Fine Ever for Tech Firm

Company slammed with $5B penalty over privacy; Zuckerberg escapes serious personal liability

(Newser) - Federal regulators have fined Facebook $5 billion for privacy violations and are instituting new oversight and restrictions on its business—but they're only holding CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally responsible in a limited fashion. The fine is the largest the Federal Trade Commission has levied on a tech company, though...

FTC Votes 3-2 to Hit Facebook With $5B Penalty

Settlement caps privacy investigation

(Newser) - The Federal Trade Commission has voted to approve a roughly $5 billion settlement with Facebook over its handling of user privacy. The agreement, which probably would include restrictions on Facebook, caps a lengthy investigation, the Wall Street Journal reports. The commissioners voted 3-2 along party lines, with the majority Republicans...

Regulators May Go After Zuckerberg Personally

Facebook and FTC discuss new oversight of CEO

(Newser) - Federal regulators are considering ways to hold Mark Zuckerberg responsible for Facebook's handling of its users' personal information. Possible new oversight of the CEO has been discussed by FTC officials and Facebook as part of the government's investigation into how the networking site uses the data, the Washington ...

Yep, It's Another Privacy Problem for Facebook

Millions of passwords were stored in plain text, a big no-no

(Newser) - Facebook left millions of user passwords readable by its employees for years, the company said Thursday, an acknowledgement it offered after a security researcher posted about the issue online. "Security rule 101 dictates that under no circumstances passwords should be stored in plain text, and at all times must...

NYT Investigation Not Making Things Easier for Facebook

Paper alleges Facebook gave more than 150 companies special data access

(Newser) - Mark Zuckerberg is on track to lose $15 billion this year , and articles like this from the New York Times give more than an inkling as to why: An investigation based on hundreds of pages of internal documents show Facebook has for years given a select group of 150+ partners—...

Latest Facebook Glitch: Millions of 'Private' Posts Made Public

As many as 14 million users affected

(Newser) - Facebook said Thursday that a software bug made some private posts public for as many as 14 million users over several days in May, the AP reports. The problem, which Facebook said it has fixed, is the latest privacy scandal for the world's largest social media company. It said...

Facebook Says It Gave 4 Chinese Companies Access

One of which was Huawei, which has lawmakers unnerved

(Newser) - Days after the New York Times came out with a report alleging that Facebook improperly let other companies have access to users' personal information comes a follow-up from the Times that reports the group included four Chinese companies—one of which US intelligence has identified as a possible national security...

Facebook Faces Another Controversy Over Privacy

'New York Times' reports that company gave device makers access to users' info

(Newser) - The New York Times is out with a report alleging that Facebook improperly let other companies have access to users' personal information—and even their friends' information. Facebook has quickly pushed back against the allegations. The Times says that Facebook set up data-sharing agreements with at least 60 device-makers such...

Zuckerberg Says He Was One of the 87M
Zuckerberg Says He
Was One of the 87M
Apr 11, 2018 10:50 AM CDT

Zuckerberg Says He Was One of the 87M

Facebook CEO's own data was scooped up by Cambridge Analytica

(Newser) - Mark Zuckerberg was back on Capitol Hill Wednesday, and he told lawmakers in a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing that his own Facebook information was compromised in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, with Zuckerberg numbering as one of the 87 million users whose data was shared. Reuters reports he didn'...

Facebook to Notify 87M Affected by Data Scandal

Notices will go out to around 70M Americans

(Newser) - Get ready to find out if your Facebook data has been swept up in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Starting Monday, the 87 million users who might have had their data shared with Cambridge Analytica will get a detailed message on their news feeds. Facebook says most of the affected users—...

Facebook Sharply Increases Estimate of People Exposed in Latest Privacy Scandal

87M users, not 50M, might have had data accessed by Cambridge Analytica

(Newser) - Facebook revealed Wednesday that tens of millions more people might have been exposed in the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal than previously thought and said it will restrict the user data that outsiders can access, the AP reports. Facebook is facing its worst privacy scandal in years following allegations that Cambridge...

Facebook Takes 'First of Many Steps' for Privacy

Privacy tools overhaul is in wake of multiple controversies, and to prep for tighter EU rules

(Newser) - Facebook is giving its privacy tools a makeover as it reels from criticisms over its data practices and faces tighter European regulations in the coming months. The changes won't affect Facebook's privacy policies or the types of data it gathers on users. But the company hopes its 2....

MP: It's 'Absolutely Astonishing' Zuckerberg Won't Testify

Facebook founder has declined 3 invitations

(Newser) - Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has declined an invitation to testify in front of Britain's parliament after a series of privacy scandals for the social media site, and one member of parliament is calling his refusal "absolutely astonishing." Damian Collins, chair of the parliamentary committee looking into fake...

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