Page 26 - PCWorld (September 2019)
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NEWS FACEBOOK PRIVACY RESTRICTIONS
So what’s changed? Other
than the oversight committees,
it’s hard to say. In a Facebook
post, Zuckerberg offered yet
another pledge to protect
privacy: “We have a
responsibility to protect
people’s privacy,” he wrote, in
a post cited by the company
(go.pcworld.com/cite). “We
already work hard to live up to
this responsibility, but now
we’re going to set a completely
new standard for our industry.”
interests, ‘likes,’ app activity, and status of
being online.” All were sent to the third-party DID THE AGREEMENT GO
app developers, the DOJ said. FAR ENOUGH?
“In some instances,” the suite alleges, It’s clear that financially, Facebook won’t
“the apps called for data about Affected materially feel the effects of the fine save for a
Friends in numbers that greatly exceeded the quarter or two. When news of the proposed
number of the apps’ monthly active users. For settlement leaked a short time ago,
example, one app highlighted in the audit Facebook’s stock actually went up.
made more than 450 million requests for It’s worth noting that the FTC agreement
data—roughly 33 times its monthly active was agreed to by a 3-2 vote, with the
users,” the suit alleges. dissenting commissioners strongly objecting.
It appears that the FTC is giving Facebook Commissioner Rohit Chopra wrote that the
some leeway in determining whether third- agreement gave Facebook executives
party apps can “justify” their need for user “blanket immunity” and argued that it would
data. That’s a bit problematic, given that the not provide significant change. “[T]he order
DOJ’s suit alleges that Facebook confirmed allows Facebook to decide for itself how
the need for data only with app developers much information it can harvest from users
spending more than $250,000 on Facebook. and what it can do with that information,
Apps spending less than that had their as long as it creates a paper trail,” he
privileges automatically revoked. wrote (go.pcworld.com/cho).
26 PCWorld SEPTEMBER 2019
