Ironically, as Facebook is facing increased scrutiny for not protecting their users’ personal data, they have been hit with a $33 million fine for not allowing police to access WhatsApps messages.
A Brazilian judge has ordered that Facebook pay 111.7 million reais ($33.4 million) for failing to cooperate with a corruption investigation, federal prosecutors said on Thursday, prompting Facebook to say it was exploring “all legal options.”
The judge fined Facebook for failing to give access in 2016 to WhatsApp messages exchanged by individuals under investigation for defrauding the healthcare system of Brazil’s Amazonas state, the prosecutors said in a statement.
The social network claims that it has handed over the data it is required to by law. Details about the issue haven’t been shared. It should be noted that WhatsApp messages are encrypted end-to-end, (much like Apple’s iMessages), so Facebook couldn’t turn over the content of actual WhatsApp messages, even if it wanted to.
TechCrunch reports Facebook has deleted a number of private messages (PM’s) sent by CEO Mark Zuckerberg from the inboxes of recipients. Ordinary Facebook users can’t do that. Once a message has been sent, it stays in the recipients message box, even if you’ve deleted the message on your end.
Facebook says this was put into place for security reasons.
After Sony Pictures’ emails were hacked in 2014 we made a number of changes to protect our executives’ communications. These included limiting the retention period for Mark’s messages in Messenger. We did so in full compliance with our legal obligations to preserve messages.
The WSJ reports multiple Facebook users who are attempting to delete their Facebook accounts have bene unable to do so.
At the confirmation screen that appears after clicking “Delete My Account,” the system tells them their passwords are incorrect.
Users have reported entering the verified correct password over and over again without success. Often, it is the password they used only moments before, to log into their accounts. Users have experienced the issue across different browsers, operating systems and devices. (Many didn’t even use password managers or their browsers’ auto-fill-form feature, which could potentially trip up this system.)
Some users who experienced this issue report that changing their password then trying the deletion process again allowed the process to be successful.
Facebook has halted a project that was asking hospitals to share patient data with the social network. While the data would have been anonymized, and was designed to aid hospitals and patients,CNBC reports the project has been put on hold:
Facebook has asked several major U.S. hospitals to share anonymized data about their patients, such as illnesses and prescription info, for a proposed research project. Facebook was intending to match it up with user data it had collected, and help the hospitals figure out which patients might need special care or treatment.
(Via 9to5Mac)