Facebook pondered, for a time, selling access to user data
<https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/11/facebook-pondered-for-a-time-sel...> A failure to adequately redact a public court document <https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5317193-7b6c2e96-396f-4cf6-ba18-65c8...> from February 2017 shows that, back in 2012, Facebook considered charging companies at least $250,000 for access to one of its primary troves of user data, the Graph API <https://developers.facebook.com/docs/graph-api/>. In April 2014, Facebook changed the way the previously permissive Graph API works <https://medium.com/tow-center/the-graph-api-key-points-in-the-facebook-and-c...>. The social media giant restricted some data access and eliminated all access to the earlier version by June 2015. The redaction failure was first reported Wednesday by /The Wall Street Journal <https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-considered-charging-for-access-to-user-data-1543447785?mod=e2tw>./ Ars was able to access pages of blacked-out text simply by copying and pasting them into a text editor. However, some portions of the messages, which span 2012 through 2014, are incomplete. These revealed blocks of text (built on previous reporting <https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/06/facebook-let-select-companies-ha...>) suggest that Facebook gave extended access to the v1.0 of Graph API to numerous companies not only including Nissan and Royal Bank of Canada but now also to Chrysler/Fiat, Lyft, Airbnb, and Netflix, among others. Facebook spokeswoman Katy Dormer called Ars on Thursday morning to say that Chrysler/Fiat and the other companies—besides Nissan and Royal Bank of Canada—listed in this court document are listed erroneously, and that Six4Three's attorneys are mistaken on this point. How long the pay-for-access proposal was under consideration is not clear, but it was not ultimately implemented—Facebook continues to give away access to its Graph API for free. These previously hidden excerpts reveal part of an argument that is at the crux of an ongoing lawsuit brought by Six4Three, a short-lived app that sought to identify Facebook images of people wearing bikinis. [...]
participants (1)
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Alberto Cammozzo