Andrew O'Hara
The federal government has initiated a criminal investigation into Facebook for its data dealings with some of the world's largest technology companies, adding to the company's woes as it clamors to mitigate fallout from recent revelations regarding potentially unscrupulous business practices.
According to The New York Times, a New York grand jury has issued subpoenas for records from two smartphone manufacturers who entered into agreements with Facebook for wide access to personal information from hundreds of millions of users.
Many companies — Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Sony included — have, or at one point had, some sort of deal with Facebook that gives them some access to user data.
Facebook confirmed the investigation in a statement to The Times.
"We are cooperating with investigators and take those probes seriously," a spokesman said. "We've provided public testimony, answered questions and pledged that we will continue to do so."
No other notable information surrounding the criminal charges, overseen by the Eastern District of New York's U.S. attorney's office, has been revealed. It is unclear when the investigation began or what it is focusing on, the report said.
The inquiry couldn't come at a worse time for Facebook, as the social network works feverishly to mend its public image amid several high-profile scandals.
Most recently, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg pledged a newfound priority on privacy that has been largely deemed as little more than a publicity stunt. This follows the latest scandal in which Facebook was found to allow users to look up others based on the phone number submitted for two-factor authentication.
Prior to that, word leaked that Facebook and the FTC were nearing an agreement on a billion dollar privacy violation fine, stemming from the Cambridge Analytica fiasco during the 2016 election. The Cambridge investigation pulled in multiple U.S. agencies including the Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation and Securities and Exchange Commission.
Facebook recently felt Apple's ire when it was discovered that the social media giant was paying users to install a "research" app that gave it access to user device histories. The program relied on enterprise developer certificates designed for internal corporate use, a clear violation of Apple's policies. Apple decided to rescind Facebook's enterprise certificate, temporarily breaking all of the social media giant's internal applications.
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
Christine McKee
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
Andrew Orr
14 Comments
Although Senator Warren's idea to break up such companies is, I feel, not the real solution to these sorts of issues ... it's become very clear that FB and Google (and all other tech companies) are going to need to be much more carefully and thoroughly regulated. Something along the lines of a North American GDPR would be a good starting point, but obviously Google and FB, and probably Twitter and other smaller players cannot regulate themselves.
I kinda agree Chasm. But what I like to see is the curators of those companies to be politically neutral. Neither left or right. Have the common sense from the 1960s. Something between the Kennedy Republicans and the Reagan Democrats. If the powers-to-be of those companies don't like my proposal, in a way, they need to be disbanded. I see no need for them. I then see them as part Hitler and part Stalin. Especially facebook* and google* are currently acting like fascists.* = I have no respect for these companies, therefore they will be in lower case.
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We have saying: There is boiling water for every pig. Do not know English equivalent. It is place where politicians have to focus their attention not App Store and weakening iOS security.
Someone at facebook today: I have an idea, we will destroy the evidence.
*massive world wide outage of all FB properties.*