Hundreds of millions of Facebook user records exposed on Amazon cloud servers
Researchers at UpGaurd, a cyber security firm, found massive amounts of user data hiding in plain sight. This data was inadvertently posted publicly to Amazon's cloud computing servers. The discovery shows that a year after the Cambridge Analytica scandal exposed how unsecure and widely disseminated Facebook users’ information is online, companies that control that information at every step still haven’t done enough to seal up private data. In one instance, Mexico City-based digital platform Cultura Colectiva, openly stored 540 million records on Facebook users, including identification numbers, comments, reactions and account names. The records were accessible and downloadable for anyone who could find them online. That database was closed Wednesday after Bloomberg alerted Facebook to the problem and Facebook contacted Amazon. As a result of these findings Facebook shares fell on the news and they closed down 0.4% at $173.54.
I think of this from two sides. First it is interesting to hear people complain that Facebook is using user data by pretty much selling it to big firms like Amazon through advertisements. Facebook tracks peoples preferences and through technology both Amazon and Facebook can pick up on these preferences and send targeted advertisements to individuals. Facebook is a for profit company so when people complain that their privacy is being violated its a little silly. People post about their entire lives for the whole world to see but get uptight when they get a few extra advertisements thrown their way. If people have a problem with the way Facebook does things then they shouldn't use the sight. It is interesting to note how sloppy Facebook has become at hiding what they are doing. There is obviously a microscope on their user data policies and it seems that they just do not care about either fixing the problem or becoming better at hiding it. I am all for companies doing whatever it takes to make money. But in this day and age if a company is blatantly irresponsible people will take notice and boycott.
https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-tn-facebook-user-data-amazon-web-services-privacy-20190403-story.html
1 comment:
I think its crazy how valuable user data has become. Like you said, Facebook is a for profit business and it doesnt make sense that people are concerned about their privacy when they are posting their whole lives on Facebook. However, I think there needs to be increased regulation regarding the sharing of data between major corporations. You mentioned the sloppiness on Facebooks part but i think that can be expected based on the fact that there are millions of users.
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