April 2020: Facebook hackers leaked phone numbers and personal data of 553 million online users.
July 2019: Facebook data scandal: The social network is fined $5 billion for sharing users’ personal information in an “inappropriate” way
March 2019: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised a rebuild based on six “privacy-focused” principles:
- Private interactions
- Encryption
- Reduce permanence
- Security
- Interoperability
- Secure data storage
Zuckerberg promised end-to-end encryption for all of his messaging services, which will be combined in a way that allows users to communicate via WhatsApp, Instagram Direct and Facebook Messenger.
December 2018: Facebook is under fire after a bombshell report found that the company allowed more than 150 companies, including Netflix, Spotify and Bing, to access unprecedented amounts of user data, such as private messages.
Some of these ‘partners’ had the ability to read, write and delete Facebook users’ private messages and see all participants in a thread.
It also allowed Microsoft’s search engine, known as Bing, to see the name of all of Facebook users’ friends without their consent.
Amazon was allowed to obtain users’ names and contact information through their friends, and Yahoo could see streams of friends’ posts.
September 2018: Facebook revealed that it had been hit by the worst data breach in its history, affecting 50 million users, including those of Zuckerberg and Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg.
The attackers exploited the site’s ‘View As’ feature, which allows people to see how other users view their profiles.
Facebook (file image) made headlines in March 2018 after Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy, improperly accessed the data of 87 million users.
Unknown attackers took advantage of a feature in the code called ‘Access Tokens’ to take over people’s accounts, potentially giving hackers access to private messages, photos and posts, although Facebook said there was no evidence this had been done. made.
The hackers also attempted to collect people’s private information, including name, gender and hometown, from Facebook’s systems.
Zuckerberg assured users that no passwords or credit card information was accessed.
As a result of the breach, the company logged out approximately 90 million people as a security measure.
March 2018: Facebook made headlines after Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy, improperly accessed the data of 87 million users.
The disclosure has sparked government investigations into the company’s privacy practices around the world and fueled a ‘#deleteFacebook’ movement among consumers.
The communications company Cambridge Analytica had offices in London, New York, Washington, as well as Brazil and Malaysia.
The company boasts that it can “find your voters and mobilize them to action” through data-driven campaigns and a team that includes data scientists and behavioral psychologists.
“In the United States alone we have played a critical role in winning presidential elections, as well as state and congressional elections,” with data on more than 230 million American voters, Cambridge Analytica said on its website.
The company benefited from a feature that meant apps could ask permission to access your own data, as well as the data of all your Facebook friends.
The data firm suspended its chief executive, Alexander Nix (pictured), after recordings emerged of him making a series of controversial claims, including boasts that Cambridge Analytica played a key role in the election of Donald Trump.
This meant that the company was able to extract the information of 87 million Facebook users even though only 270,000 people gave them permission to do so.
This was designed to help them create software that can predict and influence voters’ choices at the polls.
The data firm suspended its CEO, Alexander Nix, after recordings emerged of him making a series of controversial claims, including boasts that Cambridge Analytica played a key role in the election of Donald Trump.
This information is said to have been used to help the Brexit campaign in the UK.