MORE BAD PRESS FOR FACEBOOK
A New York Times report has found that Facebook gave some companies more extensive access to users’ personal data than previously revealed, including private messages and names of friends, without consent.
The report by the newspaper detailed special arrangements between Facebook and companies such as Microsoft, Netflix, Spotify and Royal Bank of Canada, in the latest revelations on how the social network shares user data.
The report says that Facebook had deals to shared data with more than 150 companies as far back as 2010 and were all active in 2017, with some still in effect this year. Not only tech businesses but automakers and media organizations, through apps on its platform, even if users disabled sharing. Apps from many of these “integration partners” never even showed up in user application settings, with the company considering them an extension of its own network.
Facebook responded to the report in a blog post, which said the partnerships did allow features like “messaging integra- tions,” but nearly all have been shut down over the past few months, except for deals with Apple and Amazon.
None of the deals gave outside companies access to data without user consent, it said. The company also said a separate product called “instant personalization” — which powered Bing’s features — was shut down in 2014, though it acknowl- edged it should not have left the data exchange interface up.
SHIFT CONTINUES FROM SMARTPHONES TO SOFTWARE AND SECURITY BlackBerry made its name as a smartphone pioneer, but has shifted in recent years to software and security services so it should be no surprise that it has a deal in place to acquire U.S. artificial intelligence and cybersecurity company Cylance Inc founded in 2012 for $1.4 billion USD which is expected to close before the end of its financial year in February 2019, pending regulatory approvals and closing conditions. This is a great fit for Blackberry as Cylance is a pioneer in applying artificial intelligence, algorithmic science and machine learning to cybersecurity software, which also fits into BlackBerry’s plans to continue growing its QNX software business, which is focused on the automotive sector.
107 DECEMBER 2018 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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