Due to the fact that many of us have willingly given Facebook access to our personal data, they basically have a treasure trove of information on us and our usage habits that could be used to sell advertising. The company has been hit with various privacy-related scandals in recent times, although the latest scandal could be one of its most damning yet.
In a report from The New York Times, it seems that interviews with more than 60 people including former Facebook employees, Facebook had apparently given certain companies way more access to the personal information of its users than they had previously disclosed. In fact the report claims that Facebook had apparently given select companies the ability to not only read our private messages, but to edit them and also delete them.
However according to Steve Satterfield, Facebook’s director of privacy and public policy, he claims that none of Facebook’s partners had violated users’ privacy or the FTC’s agreement. Facebook themselves have also claimed that there is no evidence of abuse by its partners. The company has also since published a blog post detailing the extent of their partnerships, and what could or could not be done.
During a call with reporters, Engadget posed question to Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg on why people should continue trusting the company, in which he revealed that they had a three-year project in place that will ultimately solve its security and privacy issues, although whether or not people will continue sticking around is a different story.