Facebook has reportedly given several tech companies greater access to users’ personal data than it gave to the public, and even gave Spotify and Netflix, even though Netflix denies this, “the ability to read Facebook users’ private messages.”
These findings come by way of a New York Times report that said internal documents showed that Facebook offered data for its over 2.2 billion users to Microsoft, Amazon, Spotify, Netflix and more.
In addition to Spotify and Netflix being able to read Facebook users’ private messages, the report also claims that Microsoft Bing could see all Facebook users’ friends without their consent and Amazon could gain access to users’ names and contact information through their friends.
All in all, over 150 companies benefited from these deals with Facebook and date back to as far back as 2010, with some still in effect in 2018.
Netflix, at the very least, spoke up on Twitter in a joking manner in response to The New York Times article, saying “Netflix never asked for, or accessed, anyone’s private messages. We’re not the type to slide into your DMs.”
Vulture reached out to Netflix to see if that was the streaming giant’s official statement, in which it responded that “at no time did we access people’s private messages on Facebook, or ask for the ability to do so.”
“Over the years we have tried various ways to make Netflix more social,” Netflix said. “One example of this was a feature we launched in 2014 that enabled members to recommend TV shows and movies to their Facebook friends via Messenger or Netflix. It was never that popular so we shut the feature down in 2015. At no time did we access people’s private messages on Facebook, or ask for the ability to do so.”
Facebook has been under a lot of scrutiny lately as this report is one of many, including earlier this year when 50 million Facebook accounts were compromised by a security vulnerability and may also have been used to aid Trump’s campaign.
Adam Bankhurst is a news writer who really isn’t even surprised by these stories anymore. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst.