Facebook's Secret Data Access: Netflix, Spotify, and User Consent Issues

After interviewing over 60 people, ranging from former Facebook employees and partners, as well as reviewing over 270 internal Facebook documents, The New York Times discovered that Facebook offered its users’ data to more than 150 companies. Those companies, the investigation revealed, ranged from tech and entertainment companies to online retailers, automakers, and even banks.

Without first obtaining users’ permission, Facebook “allowed Spotify, Netflix and the Royal Bank of Canada to read, write and delete users’ private messages, and to see all participants on a thread.” It let Bing “see the names of virtually all Facebook users’ friends without consent.” Amazon could “obtain users’ names and contact information through their friends.” Yahoo could view streams of friends’ posts. The list goes on and on.

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