More than 150 companies, including major tech organizations and online retailers, made arrangements with Facebook to have special access to users' personal data, even as the social media platform assured people that they had control over their own data, The New York Times reports.

The Times reviewed more than 270 pages of documents Facebook generated in 2017 to track the partnerships, and spoke with more than 50 former employees of the company and its corporate partners. Under the arrangement, partners were essentially exempt from the usual privacy rules, the Times reports. For example, Netflix and Spotify were granted permission to read users' private messages; Amazon was able to obtain the contact information of users through their friends; and Bing, the Microsoft search engine, was allowed to "see the names of virtually all Facebook users' friends without consent," the Times says.

The records show the that deals, all of them active in 2017, involved the data of hundreds of millions of users every month. The first deals were made in 2010. Steve Satterfield, Facebook's director of privacy and public policy, told the Times these partnerships did not violate the privacy of users or run afoul of the Federal Trade Commission's 2011 consent agreement that prohibited Facebook from sharing user data without permission. Read more about the arrangements — and why data privacy experts are skeptical of Facebook's claim that these partnerships were exempt from regulatory requirements — at The New York Times. Catherine Garcia

The jury in the Harvey Weinstein rape trial has indicated it's facing a potential deadlock on the most serious charges against him.

During the fourth day of deliberations on Friday, jurors in the Weinstein rape trial asked what they should do if they can't reach a verdict on the two predatory sexual assault charges, but can on the other three, Variety reports.

Weinstein is facing sexual assault and rape charges stemming from the allegations of Mimi Haleyi, who alleges Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her in 2006, and Jessica Mann, who alleges Weinstein raped her in 2013. But among the other accusers who testified was Annabella Sciorra, who alleges Weinstein raped her in 1993 or 1994.

Sciorra testified to support the two charges of predatory sexual assault, and it's her testimony that jurors have appeared to be focused on in recent days. On Friday, they revisited her cross-examination, and earlier in the week, they asked the judge to clarify why it is Weinstein didn't face charges specifically stemming from Sciorra's allegation. Her case is too old to prosecute, but the first count of predatory sexual assault relates to the allegations of Haleyi and Sciorra, while the second count relates to the allegations of Mann and Sciorra, The Wrap reports. Weinstein is also facing charges of criminal sexual act in the first degree, rape in the first-degree, and rape in the third-degree.

The prosecution on Friday said they wouldn't accept a "partial verdict," and the judge instructed jurors to continue deliberations, per The Hollywood Reporter. Not long after, the jury was dismissed for the day, with deliberations set to pick back up on Monday. Brendan Morrow

Will another caucus catastrophe unfold this weekend in Nevada?

Democrats sure hope not, with a Nevada Democratic Party spokesperson telling NBC News that
"we have been working around the clock to ensure that what happened in Iowa will not happen here," also saying the party will be "taking no chances when it comes to reporting."

To that end, Nevada Democrats, NBC reports, have hired a call center with 200 paid operators to take in results on Saturday, with the party spokesperson saying steps like these should "ensure that our precinct chairs and site leads will be able to successfully report results on caucus day." In Iowa, problems arose both due to technical issues with an app and due to clogged phone lines that made it difficult to report results.

In a memo distributed to the 2020 campaigns, the Nevada state party's executive director said that a dedicated phone hotline will be the "primary source of the precinct caucus results," The New York Times reports. Precinct chairs, the memo said, will "call a hotline to securely report their results to a trained operator, will submit via text a photo of their caucus reporting sheet to state party staff through an established MMS reporting hub, and then they will return their caucus reporting sheet and other materials to their Site Lead."

The plan was originally for the Nevada caucus to use an app developed by the same company behind the disastrous Iowa app, but those plans, obviously, were ditched. Still, DNC Chair Tom Perez, who NBC reports will actually be on the ground for the caucus this time, earlier this week couldn't commit to the same-day release of the results, telling The Associated Press, "We're going to do our best to release results as soon as possible, but our North Star, again, is accuracy." Brendan Morrow

The new horror sequel Brahms: The Boy II is, according to critics, pretty bad — and you can apparently thank Jared Kushner memes for its existence.

Director William Brent Bell in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter on Friday explained that the creepy doll sequel, a follow-up to his 2016 film The Boy, got off the ground specifically because there were so many memes comparing the doll to Kushner.

"That's when Lakeshore called me and said, you know, 'this is really taking on a life of its own now in the zeitgeist of pop culture," Bell explained. "You want to think about an idea for a sequel?'"

Bell further explained to UPI that producer Gary Lucchesi called him "after about six months" of The Boy-related Kushner memes proliferating online, as this proved that "the doll is still hanging around, so we have something that interested people." It was, evidently, memes first, sequel idea second.

Given the follow-up's dismal 8 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, there may be a lesson to be learned here: be careful when you meme. You may just inadvertently spawn a terrible horror movie. Brendan Morrow

Attorney Gloria Allred would like Prince Andrew to give the FBI a ring.

Allred, who represents some of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's accusers, has reportedly paid to have a bus drive around London with an ad putting Prince Andrew on blast after prosecutors said he hasn't been cooperating with their Epstein investigation.

"If you see this man please ask him to call the FBI to answer their questions," an ad reads on the bus, which was seen driving near Buckingham Palace not long after Prince Andrew's birthday, The Wrap reports.

Last month, Geoffrey Berman, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that Prince Andrew has provided "zero cooperation" as they continue to investigate Epstein's co-conspirators. Virginia Roberts Giuffre has claimed Epstein forced her to have sex with Prince Andrew when she was 17, a claim he has denied. He stepped back from public duties after his ties to Epstein came under scrutiny and after a widely-panned interview in which he said Epstein "conducted himself in a manner unbecoming."

When he decided to step back in November, Prince Andrew said he was "willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations, if required." Allred in a press conference on Friday urged him to do just that, per The Guardian, saying, "I implore you, Prince Andrew. You must do the right thing and stop shaming your family — the Queen, your children. If you have done nothing wrong then just talk to the FBI."

It's not that unusual to find bears wandering around towns and cities across the U.S., especially when those cities are right next to the hills where those bears live. But one not-so-unusually lumbering around Monrovia, California, on Thursday and Friday has sparked some atypical curiosity in the bear-friendly city.

The large, nameless bear has been spotted slowly making his way through yards and blocking traffic since Thursday night, not doing much besides sniffing out trash.

Nothing fazed the bear — not even a man getting way too close with his cell phone or some barking dogs behind a fence.

The bear eventually fell asleep in someone's backyard, reporter for local station KNX1070 Craig Fiegener learned from the California Fish and Wildlife Department. Officials from the department were planning to sneak into the yard, extend the bear's nap with a tranquilizer dart, and then return him to the woods where he belongs. Kathryn Krawczyk

The search is on for a rebellious White House official — even though President Trump insists he knows who that person is.

Since an anonymous senior administration official first wrote a New York Times op-ed detailing an internal resistance in the White House, Trump's closest advisers — and Trump himself — have been trying to find out his or her identity. Top trade adviser Peter Navarro — for some reason — is now apparently leading the charge in blaming Deputy National Security Adviser Victoria Coates, but wouldn't confirm that reporting in a Friday interview with CNN.

The idea that Coates is Anonymous has been swirling in and out of the White House for weeks now as their book nears publication, Politico reports. Navarro wouldn't say he believed Coates was Anonymous when talking to CNN on Friday, but suggested "suspects are everywhere" before attacking the "so-called senior administration officials" apparently opposing Trump's agenda. Coates received a promotion from National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien back in November to become the deputy she is now.

It's unclear why a trade adviser is engaging in such political counter-espionage. It's also unclear why there needs to be a hunt at all, seeing as just on Tuesday, Trump said he knew who Anonymous was but "can't tell you" their identity. Kathryn Krawczyk