Rough Week for Facebook

by Carey Parker | Posted on

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Facebook had a horrible, no-good, very bad week. Not only did Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp go completely offline for about six hours, a whistleblower came forward to show the world what most of us already knew: Facebook values money over its users’ well being. And I have another story that backs that up, as well – one that you almost surely did not hear about.

In other news: the FTC tells app makers to fess up when users private data gets loose; the governor of Missouri wants to sue a newspaper for revealing a horrible security flaw that exposed teachers’ social security numbers; Apple’s attempts to prevent user tracking on iOS are being undermined by unscrupulous apps; a company that you’ve never heard of with access to almost all cellular text messages was hacked over the course of five years; the VPN maker and VPN review industries are awash in conflicts of interest; Windows 11 is finally out, but it’s not clear if and whether you should upgrade to it; and Firefox is searching for more ways to make money and stay alive, including adding more sponsored search suggestions for you to consider.

Article Links

  1. FTC says health apps must notify consumers about data breaches — or face fines https://techcrunch.com/2021/09/16/ftc-says-health-apps-must-notify-consumers-if-their-data-is-breached-or-face-fines/ 
  2. Missouri Governor Vows to Prosecute St. Louis Post-Dispatch for Reporting Security Vulnerability https://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/10/missouri-governor-vows-to-prosecute-st-louis-post-dispatch-for-reporting-security-vulnerability/ 
  3. Investigation Finds Apple App Tracking Rules May Be Ineffective; IDFA Blocked, but Apps Frequently Access Other Identifiers https://www.cpomagazine.com/data-privacy/investigation-finds-apple-app-tracking-rules-may-be-ineffective-idfa-blocked-but-apps-frequently-access-other-identifiers/ 
  4. Company That Routes Billions of Text Messages Quietly Says It Was Hacked https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3xpm8/company-that-routes-billions-of-text-messages-quietly-says-it-was-hacked 
  5. Consolidation of the VPN industry spells trouble for the consumer, https://blog.windscribe.com/consolidation-of-the-vpn-industry-spells-trouble-for-the-consumer-57e638634cf0/
  6. Facebook has finally given a reason for the six-hour outage Monday https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/4/22709806/facebook-says-the-six-hour-outage 
  7. Understanding How Facebook Disappeared from the Internet: https://blog.cloudflare.com/october-2021-facebook-outage/ 
  8. Facebook bans developer behind Unfollow Everything tool https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/8/22716044/facebook-unfollow-everything-tool-louis-barclay-banned-for-life
  9. Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen tells lawmakers that meaningful reform is necessary ‘for our common good’ https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/10/05/facebook-senate-hearing-frances-haugen/ 
  10. Windows 11 compatibility: Check if your PC meets Microsoft’s requirements https://www.cnet.com/tech/computing/windows-11-compatibility-check-if-your-pc-meets-microsofts-requirements/ 
  11. Firefox Now Sends Your Address Bar Keystrokes to Mozilla https://www.howtogeek.com/760425/firefox-now-sends-your-address-bar-keystrokes-to-mozilla/ 
  12. BONUS: Trust, but verify: An in-depth analysis of ExpressVPN’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week https://www.zdnet.com/article/trust-but-verify-an-in-depth-analysis-of-expressvpns-terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad-week/ 

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