[HN Gopher] Facebook faces mass legal action over data leak
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Facebook faces mass legal action over data leak
Author : LinuxBender
Score : 91 points
Date : 2021-04-16 20:52 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.bbc.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.bbc.com)
| nmeofthestate wrote:
| Facebook is saying the info was scraped, but I don't see my phone
| number publicly visible anywhere on Facebook, yet it's found by
| HIBP - any idea what they're referring to?
| [deleted]
| lolinder wrote:
| I believe the data was scraped from the API endpoint that
| allowed looking users up by their phone number--the bot just
| ran every possible phone number and got back everyone who had
| that feature enabled. They've locked that endpoint down, but
| this is the fallout from that initial failure to rate limit.
| jarenmf wrote:
| One must be really dump to allow a bot to make hundreds of
| millions of API requests and not noticing.
| dkersten wrote:
| I've always double checked that my phone number was listed as
| private and yet they leaked that, so I don't buy their argument
| that it was scraped.
|
| I just double checked and its set to "only me", which is what
| its always been. (I think I only added it because the app
| wanted it, but its been years since I've used the app, so don't
| remember)
| joe_the_user wrote:
| As I recall, the leak was essentially bots scraping data that FB
| calls "public" but which it's terms of use say not to scrape.
|
| The thing is, FB's protections are kind a fantasy to start with.
| The idea you know your friend's information but your
| friend's-friend's-friend's might work in real life but not on the
| Internet. At the same time, this fantasy is what Facebook has
| sold it's users (and I'd note that a look of FB user got online
| first with FB and so take their real life beliefs to it).
|
| One outcome of the suit might be for FB to say "you couldn't
| expect real privacy from this anyway, how can we be liable" and
| then the judge force to FB to label it's policy "privacy
| protection _entertainment_ " in the way we got World Wrestling
| Entertainment. And another option is for FB to pay off the suit
| just to avoid that happening.
|
| -- I remember FB saying "this wasn't a hack", which is
| technically true. It's a manifestation of the porousness of FB's
| model, which is worse, at least if you expect privacy from FB.
|
| -- Finally, lots of people say "I hate FB for not giving us
| privacy" where they mean the sort of pseudo-privacy around "only
| friends know". Here, if you accept this concept of privacy, only
| an entity like FB could give it to you, so cleaving to that
| privacy policy strengthens FB even when it's hated. It's the
| regulating social networks. If FB was a regulated monopoly,
| they'd be absolutely "too big to fail".
| pmarreck wrote:
| Serves 'em right for building in PHP ;)
| cortesoft wrote:
| I wonder if anyone ever sued the phone companies for printing
| phone books... they had the name and phone number for everyone!
| [deleted]
| mhh__ wrote:
| Did they have my phone number?
|
| Literally one click and I had a list of every UK Facebook users
| public phone number, that's not a phone book.
| CrazyCatDog wrote:
| I'm fairly confident that we could all request not to be
| listed. Perhaps a closer parallel is to ask if the phone
| directories could be sued for publishing a number following an
| opt-out request...
| RHSeeger wrote:
| You need to pay extra to not be listed.
| xico wrote:
| Only became free in 2003 in France, and the main telecom
| company then was not happy, refused to tell how much money it
| was gaining from selling the data previously, and asked for a
| subscription increase in exchange.
| CrazyCatDog wrote:
| Ironically, Ireland might be the most capable nation of reigning
| in big-tech given their preferred tax status and their subsequent
| mind-blowing profits residing there beyond the reach of the US
| feds--for now at least!
| de6u99er wrote:
| Well deserved.
| akudha wrote:
| It depends on the outcome. Companies get sued, sue each other
| all the time. A company like FB probably has the best lawyers
| money can buy, it is probably just business as usual for them
| at this point.
|
| I do hope something good (for users, not FB) comes out of it.
| rmccue wrote:
| If anyone else is looking for the link to said action, it appears
| to be https://www.digitalrights.ie/facebook/
| Rygian wrote:
| Interestingly enough, this site is asking for my personal data
| but not providing any sort of privacy policy to explain what
| will be done with my personal data...
| tyingq wrote:
| https://www.digitalrights.ie/privacy-policy/
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(page generated 2021-04-16 22:00 UTC)