Facebook doesn’t know what it does with your data, where it goes

Facebook privacy engineers have revealed that the company has no real way to keep track of the data it collects and the company’s “open border” systems gather as well as consolidate user data from a wide range of first- and third-party sources.

Due to “open borders” first-party user data, third-party data, and even sensitive data are all stored together. Due to this controlling a specific piece of this data is not an easy task.

“We do not have an adequate level of control and explainability over how our systems use data, and thus we can’t confidently make controlled policy changes or external commitments such as ‘we will not use X data for Y purpose,’” Facebook‘s privacy engineers wrote in a 2021 memo, according to Motherboard. “And yet, this is exactly what regulators expect us to do.”

The engineers also said that they are struggling to make sense and keep track of where its 2.9 billion users’ data once it makes its way into Facebook’s automated systems.

As per company’s privacy engineers they do not have enough control to maintain standards regarding what data are gathered and how they are used which could expose the company to fines over its data control.

“Considering this document does not describe our extensive processes and controls to comply with privacy regulations, it’s simply inaccurate to conclude that it demonstrates non-compliance. New privacy regulations across the globe introduce different requirements, and this document reflects the technical solutions we are building to scale the current measures we have in place to manage data and meet our obligations,” a Meta spokesperson told Motherboard.

533 million Facebook users’ data was leaked online

Last year, Personal data of 533 million Facebook users was leaked online on a hacker forum, according to news reports. The breach affected 6 million Indian users and includes details such as phone numbers, Facebook IDs, full names, locations, birthdates, bios, and — in some cases — email addresses.

Meanwhile, the vulnerability, reported in late 2019, enabled anyone to see the phone number linked to over 400 million Facebook users. At the time, the social media giant claimed the data was scraped from Facebook.

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