Facebook gave Netflix, AirBnB, and other apps special access to user data, British lawmakers allege
Facebook keeps saying it doesn't sell user data. Britain's Parliament and internal documents suggest otherwise.
In November, parliament member Damian Collins seized secret Facebook documents that reportedly involved data privacy. And on Wednesday, Collins released results from an investigation into those documents, alleging they show Facebook "gave select companies preferential access to valuable user data," The Washington Post reports.
Facebook first had to submit these secret documents as part of a California lawsuit brought by small app developer Six4Three, per CBS News. In the suit, Six4Three alleged that Facebook stripped its access to user data because it wouldn't buy advertising services or give data it collected back to Facebook — allegations that are backed up by Collins' Wednesday release. The company did submit internal documents regarding its ad practices, but refused to release them publicly. Six4Three's founder actually handed the documents to Collins.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
In the summary of Facebook's documents, Collins explicitly called out Facebook for "whitelisting" AirBnB, Netflix, and other apps. This allowed them to retain and keep using certain user data after a policy change claimed to remove all apps' access to it, per the Post. Facebook hasn't disputed the accuracy of Six4Three's documents, but did say they were "very misleading" in a statement last week. The company has not yet responded to the Post's request for comment in this most recent development.
Read more about Collins' Facebook allegations at The Washington Post, or check out the full document here.
-
Moon dust has earthly elements thanks to a magnetic bridgeUnder the radar The substances could help supply a lunar base
-
World’s oldest rock art discovered in IndonesiaUnder the Radar Ancient handprint on Sulawesi cave wall suggests complexity of thought, challenging long-held belief that human intelligence erupted in Europe
-
Claude Code: the viral AI coding app making a splash in techThe Explainer Engineers and noncoders alike are helping the app go viral
-
TikTok secures deal to remain in USSpeed Read ByteDance will form a US version of the popular video-sharing platform
-
Unemployment rate ticks up amid fall job lossesSpeed Read Data released by the Commerce Department indicates ‘one of the weakest American labor markets in years’
-
US mints final penny after 232-year runSpeed Read Production of the one-cent coin has ended
-
Warner Bros. explores sale amid Paramount bidsSpeed Read The media giant, home to HBO and DC Studios, has received interest from multiple buying parties
-
Gold tops $4K per ounce, signaling financial uneaseSpeed Read Investors are worried about President Donald Trump’s trade war
-
Electronic Arts to go private in record $55B dealspeed read The video game giant is behind ‘The Sims’ and ‘Madden NFL’
-
New York court tosses Trump's $500M fraud fineSpeed Read A divided appeals court threw out a hefty penalty against President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth
-
Trump said to seek government stake in IntelSpeed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
