It is one thing to tell people they have control over their information on a public basis, but how much information does Facebook collect about users without their knowledge?
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Facebook Inc’s Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg came under pressure from EU lawmakers on Wednesday to come to Europe and shed light on the data breach involving Cambridge Analytica that affected almost three million Europeans. Facebook has said it is putting in safeguards to make sure users’ data is protected.
The company on Monday published a blog post that outlined its data collection practices less than a week after Mark Zuckerberg testified about his company in front of Congress.
“I want to be clear: We don’t sell people’s data”, Baser stressed.
Facebook still tracks you even if you’re logged out of the social network.
The Centre is “examining” the responses submitted by Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, a government official said on Tuesday.
In Kenya, NASA leader Raila Odinga, who lost to President Uhuru Kenyatta has vowed to sue Cambridge Analytica and Facebook for running “devilish” propaganda against him during the last general elections.
She notes that Cambridge Analytica data scientists appeared to have been using Facebook two months after the company told Facebook that the data in question was already deleted.
Baser said the company uses the data for three purposes: “providing our services to these sites or apps; improving safety and security on Facebook; and enhancing our own products and services”.
Is this new or should it really surprise us? As well, users can opt to have their News Feeds display content chronologically instead of in the order of what Facebook predicts they might be most interested in. The post further lists the services that are used by these third party apps and websites. He rushed to emphasize, however, that this is how the modern internet works and that all companies, including Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn operate in a similar way, while Google has a popular analytics service.
Others reported that data such as s in their address books, social events in their calendars and even friends’ birthdays had been stored.
Furthermore, members from Congress were also concerned with Facebook’s dominance of the social media market and how its influence might reclassify the company as something more than just a “technology company” as Zuckerberg put it.
Facebook had also launched a “Data Abuse Bounty” programme to reward people who report any misuse of data by app developers.
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The Facebook data scandal deepened after users, including a Kiwi, found the social network had harvested information including call logs and text messages. The coin was created to make it easier for people to get their money to casinos in Macau, an island that is officially a part of China but maintains some independent political structures.
