As further investigations into
Facebook continue, it’s now being reported that the social networking giant allegedly gave
Spotify and
Netflix access to users’ private messages.
A New York Times investigation yielded hundreds of pages of documents showing exactly how Facebook shares its users’ information and how personal data has become the most prized commodity of the digital age.
“Facebook allowed Microsoft’s Bing search engine to see the names of virtually all Facebook users’ friends without consent, the records show, and gave Netflix and Spotify the ability to read Facebook users’ private messages,” the NYT reports. “Facebook also 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 — privileges that appeared to go beyond what the companies needed to integrate Facebook into their systems, the records show.”
Spotify could reportedly view the messages of more than 70 million users each month.
When contacted for a comment by the Times, spokespeople for Spotify and Netflix said those companies were unaware of the broad powers Facebook had granted them.
Beyond Spotify and Netflix, Facebook reportedly gave user information to Pandora, Amazon, Apple, Yahoo, Sony, Microsoft, the Royal Bank of Canada and Rotten Tomatoes.
The New York Times interviewed more than 60 people, including former Facebook employees, former government officials and privacy advocates to break the story.