Further details have emerged about when and how much Facebook knew about data-scraping by the disgraced and now defunct Cambridge Analytica political data firm. Last year a major privacy scandal hit Facebook after it emerged CA had paid GSR, a developer with access to Facebook’s platform, to extract personal data on as many as 87M […]
View More Facebook staff raised concerns about Cambridge Analytica in September 2015, per court filingCategory: Facebook
Facebook’s AI couldn’t spot mass murder
Facebook has given another update on measures it took and what more it’s doing in the wake of the livestreamed video of a gun massacre by a far right terrorist who killed 50 people in two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. Earlier this week the company said the video of the slayings had been viewed […]
View More Facebook’s AI couldn’t spot mass murderWhy Facebook waited 3 months to disclose its latest privacy screw-up
Facebook is all about making the world more open and connected, except perhaps when it comes to sharing its own colossal privacy screw-ups with its more than 2 billion users.
After KrebsOnSecurity first reported that the company had been storing hund…
Facebook stored passwords in plain text for hundreds of millions of users
Hundreds of millions of Facebook users’ passwords were stored in plain text, completely searchable by Facebook employees for years.
Some users had their passwords stored in plain text as early as 2012, according to a senior Facebook source who spoke to KrebsOnSecurity. The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, says that somewhere between 200 million and 600 million Facebook users were affected. More than 20,000 Facebook employees would have had access to these plain text passwords.
Shortly after KrebsOnSecurity published its story, Facebook posted its own statement by its vice president of engineering, security and privacy, Pedro Canahuati. He states that the company first discovered the issue during “a routine security review in January.” Read more…
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View More Facebook stored passwords in plain text for hundreds of millions of usersFacebook admits it stored ‘hundreds of millions’ of account passwords in plaintext
Flip the “days since last Facebook security incident” back to zero. Facebook confirmed Thursday in a blog post, prompted by a report by cybersecurity reporter Brian Krebs, that it stored “hundreds of millions” of account passwords in plaintext for years. The discovery was made in January, said Facebook’s Pedro Canahuati, as part of a routine […]
View More Facebook admits it stored ‘hundreds of millions’ of account passwords in plaintextFacebook can’t find local news to share
Facebook technicians are facing difficulties with their “Today In” service because of an inability to find reporting on a local level. The service was launched in 2018 and is available in 400 cities in the United States. Read more…More about Faceboo…
View More Facebook can’t find local news to shareWhy anti-vaxxer mobs go after pro-vaccine doctors online — and what to do about it
In 2017, Kids Plus Pediatrics, an independent medical practice in Pittsburgh, posted a 90-second video on its Facebook page encouraging parents to have their children vaccinated against human papillomavirus (HPV), a sexually transmitted infection tha…
View More Why anti-vaxxer mobs go after pro-vaccine doctors online — and what to do about itFacebook announces $399 Oculus Rift S to launch in spring
The wait is finally over.
After three years, Facebook-owned Oculus is finally replacing the original Rift VR headset for PC with the Rift S coming out in the spring.
The $399 Rift S isn’t a minor upgrade. With new features such as built-in cameras an…
Law enforcement needs to protect citizens and their data
Robert Anderson Contributor Robert Anderson served for 21 years in the FBI, retiring as executive assistant director of the Criminal, Cyber, Response and Services Branch. He is currently an advisor at The Chertoff Group and the chief executive of Cyber Defense Labs. Over the past several years, the law enforcement community has grown increasingly concerned […]
View More Law enforcement needs to protect citizens and their dataFacebook belatedly makes it harder to run some discriminatory ads
Nothing like finally doing the right thing after being sued and browbeaten into it. Sort of.
Scandal-plagued Facebook announced March 19 that it would take steps to address one of its many structural flaws. Namely, the company will no longer al…
Why a top antitrust lawmaker thinks it’s time to break up Facebook
When the newly-minted chair of a congressional antitrust committee calls you out, it’s probably time to start worrying. In an op-ed for the New York Times, Rhode Island Representative David N. Cicilline has called on the Federal Trade Commission to look into Facebook’s behavior for potential antitrust violations, citing TechCrunch’s own reporting that the company […]
View More Why a top antitrust lawmaker thinks it’s time to break up FacebookFacebook settles ACLU job advertisement discrimination suit
Facebook and the ACLU issued a joint statement this morning, noting that they have settled a class action job discrimination suit. The ACLU filed the suit in September, along with Outten & Golden LLC and the Communications Workers of America, alleging that Facebook allowed employers to target ads based on categories like race, national origin, […]
View More Facebook settles ACLU job advertisement discrimination suit