Classic Facebookery: Zuckerberg, Harms Suffered

via Kate Cox, come this well-crafted piece at Ars Technica, detailing new defensive machinations undertaken by Facebook, Inc. (Nasdaq: FB) attorney's and (as a matter of course) Mark Zuckerberg)...

"Facebook's $5 billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission this summer smashed records: the FTC had never before fined any company such a hefty amount. But even though critics immediately lambasted the deal as a comparative slap on the wrist for Facebook, which earned about $56 billion in revenue in 2018, newly released documents show that the company was working hard to avoid any penalty at all—and its arguments then are just a prelude to defenses it may mount now, as dozens of state, federal, and international probes pile up around it." - via Kate Cox, comes this superlative piece at Ars Technica

Why Is The FTC Allowing The Harvesting Of Kids Data?

via David Uberti, writing at Vice News, comes word of the harvesting of children's personal data, of which, the FTC is perfectly fine with... Something's terribly wrong with this scenario.

'“Over the last 20 years or so, regardless of what party was in power, the FTC has been afraid, been risk-averse, been weak-kneed — choose your metaphor — to the powers of the big digital companies,” said Jeff Chester, executive director for the Center for Digital Democracy, who was involved in the talks.' - via David Uberti, writing at Vice News

Facebookery, The Hoovering

Another day, another data thievery revelation at Facebook, Inc. (Nasdaq: FB). It's time for our national law enforcement agencies to take action and act in the manner they would against any other organized criminal enterprise. Raid the corporate headquarters, arrest, detain, interrogate and incarcerate the C-level personnel (including recently separated personnel) and prosecute. Then there's this well crafted explanaotry post at The Hacker News providing another take on the company's criminal behaviors...

'An anonymous security researcher, who sports the handle e-sushi on Twitter, first noticed that the company was asking some new users to enter their email passwords to verify their identities, a deeply anti-security request even on its own. Business Insider then spotted that if you did this a dialogue box popped up warning you – with no chance to cancel, pause or opt out – that it was importing all your contacts.' - via John Oates reporting for El Reg

Facebookery: Caught Red-Handed, Violating Apple Data Collection Rules

via Valentina Palladino. writing at Ars Techncia, comes this superlativ piece on the removal of Facebook-owned (NASDAQ: FB)bits (in this case a 'VPN' product - resident in the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) App Store - for high crimes and misdemeanors... Ooops, sorry, wrong story - just a little bit of data collection thievery. Today's Must Read!

Facebook+CambridgeAnalytica = Facebookery At It's Finest

via Graham Cluely's timely security blog, comes the story of Carole Cadwalladr whom, in her day job, is famous for her highly competent reportage at The Guardian. The specific reporting series is here. Detailing not-so-secret fundamental security and privacy flaws; all combined into a porridge with both blatant stupudity and greed as spices, in which, the aforementioned porridge turns out to be a not-so-tasty dish for Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) and Cambridge Analytica (now in receivership)... If you spend any time contemplating the evil that is Facebook, read Carole Cadwalladr's work and you'll experience a Silicon Valley revelation (perhaps some avocado toast will calm you down). Today's Must Read!

The Fifty Million of Cambridge Analytica →

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via Graham Cluley, writing at Graham Cluley.com comes an outstanding piece targeting the naughty boys and girls at Cambridge Analytica and (owned by both parent company Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL - a private company officed at London, UK and the Family of Robert Mercer, an American hedge fund manager with offices domiciled in Washington DC, London, UK and New York, NY) detailing the move to ban the organizations utilization of Facebook, Inc. (NYSE: FB) data.

All this because of a measely 50 Million Facebook User records still held by Cambridge Analytica. As the data is really yours, perhaps you should know, eh? Of course, as stewards of your user data, Facebook, Inc. is truly responsible for any misuse thereof, right?

'Hot on the heels of banning the Britain First group from its network, Facebook has announced it has suspended political data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica, and its parent company Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL).' - via Graham Cluley, writing at Graham Cluley.com

And then there's this...