Page 24 - aruba-today-20180407

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Saturday 7 april 2018

Facebook: Most users may have had public data 'scraped'

By BARBARA ORTUTAY massive amount of data
AP Technology Writer could also pose national
NEW YORK (AP) — Face- security risks, Winterton said.
book's acknowledgement A foreign entity could con-
that most of its 2.2 billion ceivably use such informa-
members have probably tion to influence elections
had their personal data or stir up discord — exactly
scraped by "malicious ac- what Russia is alleged to
tors" is the latest example of have done, using Face-
the social network's failure book and other social me-
to protect its users' data. dia, in the 2016 presidential
Not to mention its apparent elections.
inability to even identify the Privacy advocates have
problem until the company long been critical of Face-
was already embroiled in book's penchant for push-
scandal. ing people to share more
CEO Mark Zuckerberg told and more information, of-
reporters Wednesday that ten through pro-sharing de-
Facebook is shutting down fault options.
a feature that let people While the company offers
search for Facebook users detailed privacy controls
by phone number or email — users can turn off ad
address. Although that targeting, for example, or
was useful for people who face recognition, and post
wanted to find others on updates that no one else
Facebook, it turns out that sees — many people never
unscrupulous types also change their settings, and
figured out years ago that often don't even know how
they could use it to iden- to.
tify individuals and collect The company has tried to
data off their profiles. simplify its settings multiple
The scrapers were at it long times over the years, most
enough, Zuckerberg said, recently this week.
that "at some point dur- Winterton said that for in-
ing the last several years, dividual Facebook users,
someone has probably ac- worrying about this data
cessed your public infor- scraping won't do much
mation in this way." good — after all, the data
The only way to be safe is already out there. But
would have been for us- she said it might be a good
ers to deliberately turn off time to "reflect on what we
that search feature several are sharing and how we
years ago. Facebook had it are sharing it and whether
turned on by default. we need to."
"I think Facebook has not In this June 7, 2013, file photo, the Facebook "like" symbol is on display on a sign outside the com- "Just because someone
been clear enough with pany's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. asks us information, it
how to use its privacy set- Associated Press doesn't mean we have to
tings," said Jamie Winter- give it to them if we are not
ton, director of strategy for way for years when con- lem in a data-privacy ers circumvented that de- comfortable," she said.
Arizona State University's sumer groups told them audit started after the fense by cycling through She added that while she
Global Security Initiative. Facebook was violating its Cambridge Analytica dis- multiple IP addresses. no longer has a Facebook
"That, to me, was the fail- 2011 deal to better protect closures, but didn't say why The scraped informa- account, when she did she
ure." its users. But now the Cam- the company hadn't no- tion was limited to what a put her birth year as 1912
The breach was a stunning bridge Analytica scandal ticed it — or fixed it — ear- user had already chosen and her hometown as Kua-
admission for a company has awoken the FTC from lier. to make public — which, la Lumpur, Malaysia. Nei-
already reeling from allega- its long digital privacy slum- Facebook did not immedi- depending on a person's ther is true.q
tions that the political da- ber," said Jeffrey Chester, ately respond to a request privacy settings, could be
ta-mining firm Cambridge executive director for the for comment Thursday on a lot — as well as what
Analytica inappropriately Washington-based privacy when it discovered the Facebook requires people
accessed data on as many nonprofit Center for Digital data scraping. to share. That includes full
as 87 million Facebook us- Democracy. In his call with reporters name, profile picture and
ers to influence elections. Neither Zuckerberg nor his Wednesday, Zuckerberg listings of school or work-
Over the past few weeks, company has identified said the company had tried place networks.
the scandal has mush- those who carried out the "rate limiting" the searches. But hackers and scam art-
roomed into investigations data scraping. Outside ex- This restricted how many ists could then use that in-
across continents, includ- perts believe they could searches someone can formation — and combine
ing a probe by the U.S. have been identity thieves, conduct at one time from it with other data in circu-
Federal Trade Commission. scam artists or shady data a particular IP address, a lation — to pull hoaxes on
Zuckerberg himself will be brokers assembling market- numeric designation that people, plant malware on
questioned by Congress for ing profiles. identifies a device's loca- their computers or commit
the first time on Tuesday. Zuckerberg said the com- tion on the internet. But other mischief.
"The FTC looked the other pany detected the prob- Zuckerberg said the scrap- Having access to such a