Facebook still doesn't respect our privacy and waited two months to fix a breach
This latest breach involved as many as 120 million Facebook accounts.
Bryan M. Wolfe
Facebook still has a long way to go when it comes to protecting our privacy. After the Cambridge Analytica scandal, it now appears there's been another data breach, this one involving as many as 120 million Facebook accounts.
According to researcher Inti De Ceukelaire, a Facebook quiz by Nametests.com had exposed users' data. Luckily, nobody abused it. Nonetheless, it appears Facebook didn't take enough precautions to safeguard the data.
Soon after Cambridge Analytica, Facebook launched a data abuse bounty program that welcomed hackers to quickly uncover potential abuse of people's information on the network. In fact, De Ceukelaire found the leak by being a part of this program.
Unfortunately, even though he told Facebook about the issue on April 22, it wasn't until June 27 that the social network confirmed that the matter had been fixed. As a reward, Facebook sent an $8,000 bounty to a charity of De Ceukelaire's choice, the Freedom of the Press Foundation. How can Facebook respect our privacy then take two months to fix something like this?
Here's more about the data breach,
Why did it take Facebook over two months to resolve this issue? Also, how many other data breaches have been uncovered, but not yet resolved?
This news comes the same week it was reported that Facebook recently submitted a patent application for a tool that can remotely turn on your phone's microphone to start recording whenever it hears inaudible messages hidden in television advertisements.
Facebook can talk all it wants about ramping up security and privacy on its site. However, stories continue to pop up suggesting the social network still doesn't respect our user data.
Would you agree? Does Facebook respect our privacy? Let us know in the comments below.
For more Facebook news, see:
Facebook doesn't want 'bad' companies advertising on their platform
Somehow, Facebook both collects, and doesn't collect, data from non-users
Facebook admits to tracking our mouse movement for the sake of "personalized content"
Related TopicsFacebookNewsPrivacysecuritySocial
Bryan considers himself a well-rounded techie, having written articles for MakeUseOf, KnowTechie, AppAdvice, iDownload Blog. When he's not writing, he's being a single dad and rooting for his alma mater, Penn State, or cheering on the Patriots.
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