Facebook Harvested Email Contacts of 1.5 Million Users Without Their Consent

[DoctorTech]

This sort of thing keeps happening because there are no real consequences. A million-dollar fine per e-mail address would change things very, very quickly IMO.

I am not a big advocate of government intervention as their "solutions" are often worse than the original problem. But I do believe government has a legitimate role in protecting people from "force and fraud" (as opposed to protecting people from their own poor choices). I believe when companies like Facebook "harvest" contacts without explicit informed consent (i.e. a clearly worded explanation and a choice of whether or not to participate) they are committing fraud and need to face substantial legal consequences.

 

[szw-mapple fan]

Question: Would I be less prone to this crap if I just used the web version and changed notifications to just email me when a post happened in my groups?

No. Functionally both the web version and app version would almost always have the same security/data issues.

 

[dontwalkhand]

Best bet start your own websites for your soccer team etc. don’t depend on this terrible terrible platform.

 

[justperry]

FB belongs to the top five richest company in the world, and their product is 100% free. Who on earth actually thinks they’re not profiting from data of the users?
If you’re fine with that (which most are), then do nothing. If you’re not, then go somewhere else. Why all the hate though?

1. They are losing Data
2. They have Data on people who never used Facebook. (Shadow profiles)
3. Lie/cheat about almost everything they do.
4. Delete incriminating Data, for instance Zucks messages.
...
...
And so on.

 

[Jdshewman]

As a vendor who has visited Facebook's "campus" every month for years as a top data center supplier. I can tell you they could care less about the rules of business. They preach hack, hack, hack. Only, and only if when they get caught do they have any kind of remorse. There is nothing ethical about their business objective. Directed from the top down.

 

[Jimmy James]

Someone should create a saying. You got Facebooked.

 

[JetTester]

Facebook board of directors: Zuck needs to go. All this evil continues to happen under his leadership. Sooner or later, the board will be held accountable.

 

[pweicks]

DELETE Facebook already. What on earth keeps this thing alive?! Every other "social" media would be dead by now.

Even if you delete your account, they’ve made it pretty obvious by now that they’re not considerate enough to delete your personal info along with it. Pretty sure this has been proven as well.
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Facebook saying they will ‘delete the harvested email addresses’ is like me saying I’ll put away this pack of biscuits after this last one.

Exactly. Every time I read a statement from Facebook on user privacy, I have the habit where I will literally invert all their statements in my mind as I read it, like...

“These contacts WERE shared with anyone and we’re NOT deleting them.”

There are so many good habits that I’m constantly trying to develop in my life but this one just came so naturally lol

 

[MoreRumors?]

Their definition of “unintentional” really means intentional.

 

[macduke]

Of course they did because they are actually evil in every sense of the word. Just wait until you find out the next awful thing that they did tomorrow and the ones next week are going to be a doozy.

My joke didn't even make it but a few hours until FaceBook announced they were storing millions of Instagram passwords in plaintext. WTFacebook

 

[redneckitengineer]

This doesn't surprise me. I don't have any social media accounts but their servers probably have tons of data on me thanks to my dimwitted friends sharing my number and email with them. Use uOrigin and Ghostery to at least try to block their garbage tactics. I wonder if we could collectively sue them as non customers storing our data without our permission.

 

[Breaking Good]

I wonder if we could collectively sue them as non customers storing our data without our permission.

I would love it if we could do this. But you would most likely need to prove you were harmed by this in some way.

 

[omihek]

Facebook definitely has its share of ongoing problems, it’s unfortunate what it’s become over the years, especially when it doesn’t value the users privacy in mind, even when they claim too. And in today’s digital era of the Internet, privacy is crucial, and Facebook has failed on many levels. (Proud to say I’ve never had a Facebook account and now I’m glad I never did.)

Don't worry. They still got all your information from all your friends who had an account.

 

[hortod1]

Cannot think of a single redeeming thing about FB

 

[warp9]

"...a pop-up message would appear informing them that it was "importing" their contacts."
"...the company said that these email contacts had been "unintentionally uploaded."

A Facebook engineering team unintentionally created a contact import routine and unintentionally pilfered it for data.