Unveiling the Curtain: How Facebook Collects and Utilizes Your Data

Lets start with the lawsuit of 2012. The Federal Trade Commission V Facebook, the largest lawsuit by the FTC against a technology company.

Why the FTC sued Facebook in 2012

“In 2012, the FTC charged Facebook with eight separate privacy-related violations, including that the company made deceptive claims about consumers’ ability to control the privacy of their personal data. One specific count alleged that Facebook allowed users to choose settings that supposedly limited access to their information just to “friends” without adequate disclosures that another setting allowed that same information to be shared with the developers of apps those friends used. Put another way, suppose Consumer A restricted access to friends and designated Consumer B as a friend. If Consumer B used a particular app on Facebook — let’s say a game — the game developer could access information about Consumer A, including data designated as private. That was all going on behind the scenes without a clear disclosure to Consumer A and in flagrant disregard of that person’s privacy choices.

Another way the FTC says Facebook violated the order was by failing to adequately assess and address privacy risks posed by third-party developers. Other than getting developers to click an “I agree” terms-and-conditions box when registering an app with the Facebook Platform, Facebook didn’t screen developers or their apps before giving them access to massive amounts of data that users had designated as private. Of course, in the wrong hands, information like that can grease the wheels for identity thieves and fraudsters. One particularly troubling charge is that when Facebook learned that app developers were violating Facebook’s terms, Facebook’s enforcement action was often influenced by how much advertising money the app developer spent with Facebook. Just how much user data was improperly disclosed? Facebook’s poor recordkeeping makes that difficult to determine.

According to the complaint, another way Facebook misrepresented the extent to which users could control the privacy of their data related to a form of technology that raises particular concerns for many consumers: facial recognition. In an April 2018 update to its Data Policy, Facebook represented to consumers, “Face recognition: If you have it turned on, we use face recognition technology to recognize you in photos, videos and camera experiences.” The complaint alleges that this statement was deceptive to tens of millions of users who have Facebook’s facial recognition setting, “Tag Suggestions,” because that setting was turned on by default and the updated Data Policy suggested that users would need to opt-in to having facial recognition enabled for their accounts.” — Federal Trade Commission (ftc.gov)

Phew! That was a lot, but we needed to know it! Continue Below!

How Facebook Uses Your Data:

With that being said, don’t we all love Facebook? In today’s digital age, social media platforms have become an integral part of our lives, connecting us with friends, family, and the world. Facebook, one of the largest and most popular social media platforms, plays a significant role in this landscape. However, the convenience of staying connected comes at a cost — the constant collection of user data. While Facebook provides a platform for social connection and content consumption, it does so by meticulously collecting and utilizing user data. As users, it’s essential to be aware of the trade-off between convenience and privacy and make informed choices about the information we share online. Understanding how Facebook utilizes our data empowers us to navigate other social media platforms more securely. Let’s explore some ways Facebook gathers information and how they leverage this data…

Facebook’s Data Collection Arsenal

Despite the legal challenges, Facebook continues to be a dominant force in the social media realm. Understanding how the platform collects and utilizes data is crucial for users navigating the fine line between convenience and privacy.

Explicit Data:

• Information voluntarily shared by users, including personal details, likes, and comments.

MetaData:

• Information embedded within uploaded media, providing additional context.

Off Facebook Activity:

• Tracking users’ interactions with external websites, shaping a comprehensive user profile.

A Glimpse into the Data Collected:

• Viewing history, camera access, login hours, IP address, device information, likes, shares, comments, hashtags, relationships, and more.

According to @allthingssecured of Youtube — collectively — there are about 52,000 traits about you that Facebook acquires.

In return, Facebook reveals they use this data all to improve user experience; but there is another factor at play here…

A study conducted in Europe shows that social media was most relevant for criminal investigations over any online service used by law enforcement in 2022.

“Traditionally, police agencies struggle with regulating off-duty conduct of their members.” — Calea.org

Do social media companies provide government agencies a legal way to tap our phones and computers?

According to Kevin Mitnick from his Book Titled, The Art Of Invisibility “Documents exposed by Edward Snowden suggest a tight relationship between the NSA and at least one of the carriers, AT&T. According to Wired, beginning in 2002 — shortly after 9/11 — the NSA approached AT&T and asked them to begin building secret rooms in some of the carrier’s facilites. One was to be located in Bridgeton, Missouri, and another on Folsom Street in downtown San Francisco. Eventually other cities were added , including Seattle, San Jose, Los Angeles, and San Diego. The purpose of these secret rooms was to channel all the Internet, e-mail, and phone traffic through a special filter that would look for keywords. It is unclear weather text messages were included, although it seems reasonable to think they were. It is also unclear whether this practice still exists at AT&T or any other carrier post-Snowden.”

Leaked intel activity from government agencies is always a small piece of information that will help you drawn conclusions for activity in that same department and possibly other departments. If this is the type of conduct we are seeing with AT&T and the NSA, what other partnerships have taken place since the great Snowden leak of 2013?

Are they using this power responsibly? According to the CALEA official website…

“Agency personnel might use social media accounts to support intelligence gathering, criminal investigations, or even to pursue criminal conduct facilitated by social media and other internet platforms. Agencies might determine the need to regulate how personnel use personal or ‘pseudonym’ accounts to support these types of operations.”

In other words, any social media account is subject to needed when they want to gather info, or gather info for an investigation whether that account is clearly yours or whether they have reason to believe you’re operating it.

Mitnick also adds in his book, “The 1994 CALEA requires telecommunications manufactureres and carriers to modify their equipment for the purposes of allowing law enforecement to wiretap the line. So under CALEA, any landline call in the United States is theoretically subject to interception.”

Steps to maintain privacy on Facebook

1. Don’t use your real name, date of birth, or location in your profile.
2. Deny location services to Facebook in your settings
3. Deny access to your contacts, photos, microphone, and any voice recognition software.
4. Deny access to facial recognition
5. Never accept friends if you don’t know who they are.
6. Use Brave as a browser to prevent tracking you across websites (avoid using the Fbook and Messenger App)
7. Use an AI generated photo of yourself and not your real photo
8. Never connect your personal checking account to Facebook or any of its affiliates.
9. Don’t use facebook to have private conversations with friends and family (all of it is recorded).
10. Be aware of what you post and keep in mind what conclusions can be drawn from what you post. Your workplace, upcoming vacation location, etc.

Above all else,

Stay Vigilant.