After concerns about misinformation spread via social media affecting the 2020 presidential election, Meta details their policies for voting information ahead of the 2022 U.S. midterm elections.
The personal data and phone numbers of hundreds of millions of Facebook users were posted for free in a hacking forum over the weekend. The data includes personal information of 533 million Facebook users from 106 countries, including more than 32 million records on users in the U.S. 11 million on users in the U.K., and 6 million on users in India.
Facebook has fixed a critical flaw in the Facebook Messenger for Android messaging app. Natalie Silvanovich of Google’s Project Zero reported the bug to the Facebook bug bounty program. The bug could have allowed a sophisticated attacker logged in on Messenger for Android to simultaneously initiate a call and send an unintended message type to someone logged in on Messenger for Android and another Messenger client (i.e. web browser).
In June, Apple announced iOS 14 updates that, among other changes, would require apps to ask users for permission to collect and share data with developers. As a result, Facebook has just announced it would no longer collect the identifier for advertisers (IDFA) on their own apps on iPhones.
An Elasticsearch database containing more than 267 million Facebook user IDs, phone numbers, and names was left exposed on the web for anyone to access without a password or any other authentication.
Facebook said it would proceed with “end-to-end” encryption for its WhatsApp and Messenger services, rejecting a U.S. and Attorney General William P. Barr's plea to allow government access.