From Bloomberg:
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission confirmed it has an open, non-public investigation into Facebook Inc.’s privacy practices.
“The FTC is firmly and fully committed to using all of its tools to protect the privacy of consumers,” Tom Pahl, the acting director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection said in an emailed statement Monday.. . . .The FTC investigation, which was reported by Bloomberg last week, is focused on whether Facebook violated terms of a 2011 consent decree over its handling of personal user data that was transferred to Cambridge Analytica without users’ knowledge, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Facebook Inc. has denied that the company secretly logs the calls and messages of individuals using Android mobile devices, following media reports and user complaints.
In a blog post, the company said that logging is part of opt-in feature for individuals using Messenger or Facebook Lite on Android, and that it can be turned off in settings.“People have to expressly agree to use this feature,” the company said. “If, at any time, they no longer wish to use this feature they can turn it off in settings for Facebook Lite users, and all previously shared call and text history shared via that app is deleted.”
Link to the rest at Bloomberg
PG wonders if a click-to-accept “consent” that pops up in the middle of a user doing something else with a phone or computer rises to the same level of consent as a piece of paper being placed in front of an individual or a video which must be viewed in which a narrator explicitly sets forth all the things that can be done by the online company if the user clicks “I accept”.
PG suspects the mental process that typically happens when a click-to-accept button or link appears is much shallower when the user wants a new feature and is focused on that instead of thinking about the potential sharing of private information and all the places that information might go.
According to other reports, some of the sharing consent buttons Facebook was reportedly using were also consents for Facebook to share the consenting individual’s list of Facebook Friends and all the information Facebook had about those Friends as well.
The Federal Trade Commission has the power to make life very uncomfortable for Facebook.
handling of personal user data that was transferred to Cambridge Analytica without users’ knowledge, according to a person familiar with the matter.
I’d suggest they do a more complete job and also investigate the handling of FB data that was transferred to the 2012 Obama Campaign without users’ knowledge.
Voluntarily transfered.
That bears investigating but not just by the FTC. The FEC should be very interested in that one.
‘…the company said that logging is part of opt-in feature for individuals using Messenger or Facebook Lite on Android’
Why would any sane person ‘want’ to share their conversations with Facebook? Unless, as PG suggests, they have no idea what they’re consenting to, or are hit by the carrot-and-the-stick of wanting a feature they can only get if they consent.
I have no idea of the legal implications of all this, but the moral and ethical ones are murky indeed.
‘Buyer Beware’ is a nice idea except when the buyer is being deliberately tricked or coerced into something. 🙁
“By accessing this you are agreeing to that” way deep in the small print of the ToS is an old game a lot of sites/companies like to play.