For many facebook users, Facebook just like any other social media side is safe and secured. What they don’t know is that their Facebook data could be at risk of getting exposed and shared with some companies without their consent
US prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation into Facebook’s practice of sharing users’ data with companies without letting the social network’s members know, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.
A grand jury in New York has obtained information from at least two major smartphone makers about such arrangements with Facebook, according to the Times.
Regulators, investigators and elected officials around the world have already been digging into the data sharing practices of Facebook which has more than two billion users.
The social network’s handling of user data has been a flashpoint for controversy since it admitted last year that Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy, used an app that may have hijacked the private details of 87 million users.
Regulators, and now prosecutors, appear intent on determining whether this was done in ways that let users know what was happening and protected privacy.
The California-based social network has announced a series of moves to tighten handling of data, including eliminating most of its data-sharing partnerships with outside companies.
The focus of the grand jury probe was not clear, nor was when it started, according to the Times, which cited unnamed sources. No such single cases have been reported in Kenya, but if the current situation in US is anything to go by, then most Kenyans have a reason to worry about!