Author: Marina Fang / Source: HuffPost
A New York Times investigation revealed Tuesday that Facebook has underplayed the extent to which it shared user data with other entities. Unbeknownst to users, the social media giant allowed major tech companies wide access to personal information: for example, Amazon and Microsoft could obtain email addresses, and Spotify and Netflix could read, edit and delete personal messages.
The bombshell caps off a tumultuous year for the company, which has faced a litany of firestorms about privacy and data, election meddling and the spread of false claims during the 2016 election, and a lack of diverse hiring and potentially racist practices.
Here’s a look at some of Facebook’s biggest controversies this year — and how its executives haven’t exactly been transparent or candid about them.
The company’s apparently extensive collecting and sharing of users’ data was one of a spate of major data and privacy debacles this year, further raising questions about the company’s practices.
Last week, it disclosed that a bug in September allowed apps to access photos of up to 5.6 million users ― including photos that were uploaded but never posted. That followed several other bugs this year that also inadvertently exposed user information.
In September, Facebook announced that hackers breached a security flaw involving the site’s “view as” feature, affecting as many as 50 million user accounts. Facebook later revised its estimate to about 30 million.
This spring, the social media giant scrambled to respond to revelations that the data and political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, which had ties to President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, improperly obtained the personal information…
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