Like the author said, its not even surprising anymore.
And I mean, geez, stuff like this with Facebook just isn’t a surprise anymore, is it? For years social media Big Brother had been pestering its users to secure their account with two-factor authentication (2FA) by prompting them to enter their phone number so they could get a text with a security code login when logging into their account from a new device for the first time.
On the surface, Facebook prompting people to enable 2FA was a good thing–if you have 2FA enabled it’s much harder for someone who isn’t you to log in to your account. But this being Facebook, they’re not just going to do something that is only good for the user, are they?
Last year it came to light that Facebook was using the phone numbers people submitted to the company solely so they could protect their accounts with 2FA for targeted advertising. And now, as security researcher and New York Times columnist Zeynep Tufekci pointed out, Facebook is allowing anyone to look up a user by their phone number , the same phone number that was supposed to be for security purposes only.
Oh, and Facebook won’t let users opt out of this privacy violation they never opted in to. The most you can now do is limit who can look you up with the phone number you provided to “Friends,” but you can’t hide it entirely. And remember, by default Facebook allows the whole world to find out who you are by entering your phone number.
In response to the growing outrage over Facebook’s latest data misuse scandal, a company spokesperson told TechCrunch, “We appreciate the feedback we’ve received about these settings and will take it into account.”
Sigh. Sure you will.
If users want to try to claw back some of their privacy from Facebook’s latest data grab, go into the Settings of your Facebook account, click Privacy, then click “How People Find and Contact You.” Then click “Who can look you up using the phone number you provided?” and change the dropdown box from “Everyone” to “Friends.”
It’s ok…remember when Facebook let the New York Times, and countless other corporations, read your private data - sometimes even your private messages?
For those not paying attention let me give you a quick rundown. This phone number things is laughable in comparison to what has actually been going on for years now.
Facebook apps - which are usually installed by default on most phones these days and unremovable - had an Onavo VPN layer to them.
What this means is that an Israeli firm with ties to Mossad (and which was purchased in 2013 by Facebook) was sucking up EVERYTHING about your data/phone/app usage, and storing it…somewhere, for Facebook to spy on and share with “partners” - probably USG or political operatives.
Doesn’t matter if you even used the apps or not.
Doesn’t matter if you had an account or not.
That VPN layer was installed at the OS level and your data was sucked down, indexed, and accessed without your knowledge or permission, and you would have had no control over it.
And not just from within Facebook-apps. Check out how, for instance, Android indexes your activity on the devices. They know every single button you click on every single app you open.
Facebook has consistently stolen everything they could ever get their hands on and they are still at it today.
This is all absolutely criminal and yet nothing ever happens.
Who the hell still has Facebook? It was fun back in the day to see how ugly the kids you went to high school became but once it was apparent that Facebook was selling your data, it was time to end it. I NEVER gave them real information, nor do I provide it to ANYONE. I used to drive my wife nuts because you would walk up to the counter at say Best Buy and they would say “Phone number?”… Yeah, I don’t give that… they would briefly argue with you and once in a while it would get to “Look Jr… you can either sell me something to today with cash and ZERO information or you can keep your shit. YOU decide.”… a few months ago, I was with my wife shopping and the lady said “Phone number”… my wife (nicer than me) said “I’m sorry, I don’t share information.”
