Facebook gave Spotify, Netflix power to read your private messages
According to a report from the New York Times, Facebook has apparently given Netflix, Spotify and the Royal Bank of Canada the power to read users’ private messages. In addition to that, the trio could also write and delete messages.
Additionally, Facebook gave Microsoft’s Bing the names of all the social media networks’ users’ friends. Amazon was also given names and contact information without the users’ consent.
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Despite the questionable breach of privacy, both Spotify and Netflix have said that they were not aware of the features Facebook had given them.
However, the Royal Bank of Canada says they were never given that kind of access altogether.
In fact, Netflix took to Twitter to respond to the New York Times’ article. In a tweet, the streaming service says that they aren’t “the type to slide into your DMs.”
Netflix never asked for, or accessed, anyone’s private messages. We’re not the type to slide into your DMs.
— Netflix US (@netflix) December 19, 2018
According to the New York Times, Spotify responded similarly despite their feature which allows users to send Spotify links back and forth.
However, Netflix and the Royal Bank of Canada no longer needed anything relating to the feature.
Facebook says that there were no outward abuses of the feature among the services. This may have something to do with the companies’ apparent unawareness of their access.
Additionally, according to the Chicago Tribune, Facebook says that nearly all messaging integrations have been shut down over the past few months.
This is not the first time Facebook has seemingly breached users’ privacy agreements. This past November, it was revealed that a bug allowed websites to see users’ likes and interests. According to Facebook, however, However, this bug has been fixed.
Additionally, just earlier this month, Facebook admitted that 6 million users’ private photos were accessed by third-party apps.
What do you think about Facebook’s latest scandal? Sound off in the comments below.
