Report: Facebook's Privacy Tools Are Actually 'Riddled With Missing Data'

Bustle's tech site Input reports on some research from the U.K.-based human rights charity Privacy International: Facebook wants you to think it's consistently increasing transparency about how the company stores and uses your data. But the company still isn't revealing everything to its users, according to an investigation by Privacy International.

The obvious holes in Facebook's privacy data exports paint a picture of a company that aims to placate users' concerns without actually doing anything to change its practices.

The most pressing issue with Facebook's downloadable privacy data is that it's incomplete. Privacy International's investigation tested the "Ads and Business" section on Facebook's "Download Your Information" page, which purports to tell users which advertisers have been targeting them with ads. The investigation found that the list of advertisers actually changes over time, seemingly at random. This essentially makes it impossible for users to develop a full understanding of which advertisers are using their data. In this sense, Facebook's claims of transparency are inaccurate and misleading.
A tool showing "Off-Facebook Activity" is also criticized for its "extremely limited" detail and lack of conclude, and the article concludes that Facebook's transparency tools "come off as nothing more than a ploy to take pressure off the company."

The report's title?

"No, Facebook is not telling you everything."

Re: StRAnGe gAme...

[paul_engr]

But you can't not play because their tracking tech is ubiquitous on the non-FB internet, and they build profiles for non users

Naturally

[aeropage]

A tool showing "Off-Facebook Activity" is also criticized for its "extremely limited" detail

Yes, most stalkers don't want to give much detail.

The more we learn about Facebook...

[QuietLagoon]

... the more evil Facebook appears to be.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard
Zuck: Just ask
Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS
[Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How'd you manage that one?
Zuck: People just submitted it.
Zuck: I don't know why.
Zuck: They "trust me"
Zuck: Dumb fucks

Why would you trust the company when the founder itself is such an asshole? Facebook was evil before it even went online.

Famers and cows

[DogDude]

This is the farmer not telling the cows who they sell the milk to. Why should the cows care?

Re: Famers and cows

[paul_engr]

If the milk was a taste test before someone came and killed and ate the cows, this would be a better analogy. Also, it's more like secretly impregnating women and harvesting their breast milk without telling them. And selling the baby

Re:

[DogDude]

Nobody is killing and eating Facebook users, as far as I can tell.

And nobody is harvesting anything without telling anybody. People all knowingly, willingly, give their information into a large data mining company.

Re:

[war4peace]

People all knowingly, willingly, give their information into a large data mining company.

Not that knowingly, no, they don't.
Pick any random Facebook user and they would most likely have no idea how much data Facebook has on them. Or Google, for that matter.
I (unpleasantly) surprised most people who I told Google knows their whereabouts from since they got an Android phone and used Google Maps for the first time, especially when they realized exactly how much detail is being kept. Google knows they have been to that restaurant years ago, how they got there, how much time they spent there, how th

Re:

[DogDude]

Pick any random Facebook user and they would most likely have no idea how much data Facebook has on them. Or Google, for that matter.

I find that hard to believe. They're literally carrying around a tracking device, and entering data into a data collection device, all owned and managed by a data mining company. How could people not know that? How do people think that the "free" services they're using are making money? I see what you're saying, but I find it hard to believe that most people are *that*

Re: Famers and cows

[paul_engr]

Most people have no clue how much data they generate just by virtue of being on the internet

Facebook Privacy

[merde]

"Facebook Privacy" is an oxymoron.
If you are on Facebook you have no privacy.
If you want privacy you are not on Facebook.

Re: Facebook Privacy

[paul_engr]

Except facebook has near universal surveillance on the non-fb internet in the form of like buttons and god knows what else, and they actively build profiles for non-fb users. So there is no escaping them on a number of the top websites

Facebook and privacy? Hah

[bozzy]

Given that Facebook's entire business model depends on sucking up as much personal information as possible for advertising purposes while keeping you addicted to it, it is foolish to think it is willing to do privacy the right way.

They are much like tobacco companies... Their product is addictive an unhealthy (unhealthy for your privacy in FB's case).

Expecting FB to change is like expecting tobacco companies to change in the same way.

I know the feeling

[nospam007]

I'm riddled with missing money.

GDPR, anyone?

[Uldis Segliņš]

Why isn't it fined once a year for 4% of their yearly revenues? Not some laughable 100K, but billions. It is a blatant lie in our faces, over and over again. Such tumors in our society are not beneficial and should be cut out.