One of the really interesting facets of this is the way they were leaked. Sealed court documents were carried by the founder of a company involved in a court case against facebook. They were seized by UK border officials when he went to the UK. Then some were tabled by a committee investigating facebook.
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/facebook-internal-documents-executive-emails-published-six4three-court-leak-2019-11?r=US&IR=T > Facebook fought to keep a trove of thousands of explosive internal documents > and emails secret. They were just published online in full. > > • Thousands of pages of internal Facebook documents were published on > Wednesday, shedding new light on how the company profited from user data and > grappled with rivals. > • The documents were collected as part of a lawsuit involving Facebook > and a developer it took action against, and subsequently leaked. > • Facebook has fought vigorously against the release of the documents, > arguing that they presented an unbalanced picture of the company. > • Here are the key details you need to know about the unprecedented > leak. > • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories. > An explosive trove of nearly 4,000 pages of confidential internal Facebook > documents has been made public, shedding unprecedented light on the inner > workings of the Silicon Valley social-networking giant. > > On Wednesday, the investigative reporter Duncan Campbell released a vast > swathe of internal emails, reports, and other sensitive documents from the > early 2010s that detail Facebook’s internal approach to privacy and how it > worked with app developers and handled their access to user data. > > The documents were originally compiled as part of a lawsuit that the startup > Six4Three brought against Facebook for cutting off its bikini-photo app’s > access to the developer platform. The documents were supposed to remain under > seal – but they were leaked. > > Some of the documents had already been made public before Wednesday. The > British Parliament’s Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport Committee published > hundreds of pages in a report in December; they were seized from Six4Three’s > founder, Ted Kramer, when he visited the UK. > > And in the months before he put the entire trove of documents into the public > domain, Campbell shared them with journalists at NBC News and other outlets, > who then published several stories about them. (Campbell said that he was > sent the documents in February, the same day that the committee published its > final report, and that the sender was anonymous.) > > Facebook has fought vigorously against the release of the documents, arguing > that they do not paint a balanced picture of its activities. In an emailed > statement, a company representative told Business Insider: “These old > documents have been taken out of context by someone with an agenda against > Facebook, and have been distributed publicly with a total disregard for US > law.” > > Business Insider is combing through the documents and will update this story > with our findings. > > Here are some of the key revelations from the document dump, including from > reports published from earlier leaks: > > • Facebook wielded its control over user data to hobble rivals like > YouTube, Twitter, and Amazon. The company benefited its friends even as it > took aggressive action to block rival companies’ access – while framing its > actions as necessary to protect user privacy. > • Facebook executives quietly planned a data-policy “switcharoo.” > “Facebook began cutting off access to user data for app developers from 2012 > to squash potential rivals while presenting the move to the general public as > a boon for user privacy,” Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing the leaked > documents. > • Facebook considered charging companies to access user data. Documents > made public in late 2018 revealed that from 2012 to 2014, Facebook was > contemplating forcing companies to pay to access users’ data. (It didn’t > ultimately follow through with the plan.) > • Facebook whitelisted certain companies to allow them more extensive > access to user data, even after it locked down its developer platform > throughout 2014 and 2015.TechCrunch reported in December that it “is not > clear that there was any user consent for this, nor how Facebook decided > which companies should be whitelisted or not.” > • Facebook planned to spy on the locations of Android users. Citing the > documents, Computer Weekly reported in February that “Facebook planned to use > its Android app to track the location of its customers and to allow > advertisers to send political advertising and invites to dating sites to > ‘single’ people.” > The leak includes nearly 4,000 pages of internal Facebook documents, nearly > 3,000 pages of other exhibits from the case, and hundreds of pages of other > pieces of legal documentation. -- Kim Holburn IT Network & Security Consultant T: +61 2 61402408 M: +61 404072753 mailto:[email protected] aim://kimholburn skype://kholburn - PGP Public Key on request _______________________________________________ Link mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
