Facebook is at it again… or more accurately, they never really stopped sharing your data with their corporate partners.
January 4, 2019
Back in 2014 a research paper was produced that revealed Facebook manipulated the emotions of its users without their consent.
It seems like that Facebook experiment never stopped, and it’s getting even creepier than the original paper could ever conclude. Worse, this egregious violation of your privacy could even top the Cambridge Analytica scandal I mentioned a while ago.
Facebook can no longer be entrusted with your privacy, period. In fact, a potential case can be made that it is brokering your privacy for profits. The New York Times broke the main part of this story in a December 18th feature:
For years, Facebook gave some of the world’s largest technology companies more intrusive access to users’ personal data than it has disclosed, effectively exempting those business partners from its usual privacy rules, according to internal records and interviews.
The “world’s largest technology companies” mentioned in the story are Amazon, Microsoft, and Spotify.
Without any further investigation, two disturbing facts were brought to our attention…
- Facebook gave big companies access to your personal connections and other private data without your consent.
- It failed to disclose the full extent of that access to your information.
Just these two facts alone should encourage you to think about deleting your Facebook account immediately. But it gets even worse…
The New York Times report continued: Facebook allowed Microsoft’s Bing search engine to see the names of virtually all Facebook users’ friends without consent, the records show, and gave Netflix and Spotify the ability to read Facebook users’ private messages.
Common sense might tell you “private messages” on any social media account would be private. That means no one should have access to those messages but you and the person you’re sending them to. Apparently someone has to tell Facebook this bit of common sense, because they let two big corporations read your private messages.
Let that sink in for a moment, then take a deep breath, because according to the NYT Facebook takes this mind-bending violation of your trust to another dimension (emphasis mine)…
The social network permitted Amazon to obtain users’ names and contact information through their friends, and it let Yahoo view streams of friends’ posts as recently as this summer, despite public statements that it had stopped that type of sharing years earlier.
So Facebook is offering a sort-of “pay to play” access to your contact info through your friend’s accounts. This, after saying it stopped doing that years ago. I’m pretty sure that the definition of lying applies here.
In fact, later in the article Facebook representatives “found no evidence of abuse by its partners.” And as you would expect, no details about this “investigation” were shared by Facebook or its partners (Amazon, Spotify, Microsoft, Netflix, etc.).
So you’re just supposed to trust this big company who outright lied to its users for years, about a violation of their privacy it said it had stopped. There isn’t any doubt that your private data is “oil” in the 21st century. That doesn’t excuse major violations of basic trust though.
Instead of outright selling your data, Facebook is effectively brokering your data in a “pay to play” fashion by offering these behemoths access to it. And you’re just supposed to go along with it.
The 270-plus pages of reports that the Times reviewed “reflect just a portion of Facebook’s wide-ranging deals” according to their feature. And, unfortunately, there isn’t a way to determine what other privacy “back doors” may be open to expose even more of your information to hackers, identity thieves, and other snoops.
Bottom line, never assume the right thing is being done with your data. And it doesn’t matter if that data isn’t on Facebook, because your car, home, computer, and even your medical devices are at risk.
Right now, the rest of your private life is an open book that any social media company or individual with nefarious motives can exploit.
With just a few clicks, a phone call, and a few dollars almost everything someone wants to find out about you can quickly be put together into a complete file.
And who knows how some stranger (including federal law enforcement) will use that information? So you need to start protecting your privacy any way you can, right now…
That’s why you should get our bestselling “Go Off the Grid” report, which is your blueprint for living a truly private life. Here are a few of the things inside…
- DO THIS NOW: The one thing almost no one does to properly hide their home address, and it has nothing to do with getting a PO Box. (page 4).
- The “privacy veil” you can set up with a few clicks that renders you practically anonymous — and helps you slash your taxes. (page 24)
- Secure your phone number and your calls from snoops and credit agencies in minutes with this “Smart” blueprint. (page 13)
- The secret “shield” that makes your home, car, and other assets practically lien proof. You’ll be able to “set it once and forget it.” (page 16)
- The digital “Ghost” that can protect you online, make your digital footprints disappear, and even save you money on airplane tickets. (page 19)
- And more… including how to legally remove yourself from the banking system.
If you are serious about protecting your private life, then you don’t want to miss this brand new report…
==> Click here to get your copy now
To living privately,
Bobby Casey
Location Independent Entrepreneur
P.S. You’re on your own when it comes to protecting your private data, especially when any “data broker” with a profit motive is involved like Facebook, Amazon, Spotify, etc.
That’s why I suggest taking matters into your own hands by getting my special report today. You’ll discover the secrets for easily securing your privacy, while you still can.
And you won’t even have to leave your couch…
