Facebook made special data-sharing deals with some firms: Report
Washington, June 9 : In yet another bad day for Facebook, a Wall Street Journal report has claimed that the social networking giant provided select companies "customised data-sharing deals" that let them gain "special access to user records".
According to the report citing court documents and unnamed sources, Facebook gave data access to some companies while "others were cut off".
"Facebook Inc. struck customized data-sharing deals that gave select companies special access to user records well after the point in 2015 that the social network has said it walled off that information," the report said on Friday.
These arrangements were known as "whitelists", and allowed "certain companies to access additional information about a user's Facebook friends".
Companies like the Royal Bank of Canada and Nissan Motor reportedly made such deals with Facebook.
According to Ime Archibong, Facebook's Vice President of Product Partnerships, the company allowed some firms to have "short-term extensions" to this user data.
"But other than that, things were shut down," he told the Wall Street Journal.
In another privacy goof-up, Facebook on Thursday admitted that 14 million users were affected by a bug in May that automatically suggested posting publicly when the users were writing posts meant only for friends.
The bug made sure that the posts could be viewed by anyone, including people not logged on to Facebook. It was not yet known users in which country were affected the most.
The bug, according to Erin Egan, Chief Privacy Officer at Facebook, occurred as the Facebook developers were building a new way to share featured items on users' profile, like a photo.
"The problem has been fixed, and for anyone affected, we changed the audience back to what they had been using before," Egan said in a blog post late Thursday.
The revelation came after a New York Times report exposed how the social network allowed about 60 device makers, including Chinese smartphone players, to access personal information of users and their friends.
Facebook admitted sharing users' data with Chinese company Huawei -- facing the heat in the US over data privacy concerns -- along with three other China-based smartphone makers Lenovo, OPPO and TCL.
Facebook is facing intense scrutiny for misuse of millions of its users' data after the British political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica data leak scandal became public.
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2010 CWG 'scam': Delhi court accepts ED closure report in case against Suresh Kalmadi
New Delhi, Apr 28 (PTI): Bringing down curtains on a 13-year-old case, a Delhi court on Monday accepted the Enforcement Directorate's closure report in a money laundering case against Suresh Kalmadi, the former head of the organising committee of 2010 Commonwealth Games and then secretary general Lalit Bhanot and others.
The acceptance of the closure report brings to end the money laundering angle in the alleged scam, which took place 15 years ago.
The allegations of corruption in conducting the 2010-Commonwealth Games (CWG) triggered a huge political uproar in the country, leading to filing of several criminal and money laundering cases, including the present one.
Kalmadi and others were accused of misconduct in award and execution of two important contracts for the games.
Special judge Sanjeev Aggarwal noted the CBI had already closed the corruption case, based on which the ED started its money laundering probe and accepted the report, which also named CWG OC's then COO, Vijay Kumar Gautam, its then treasurer, A K Matto, Event Knowledge Service (EKS), Switzerland, and CEO, Craig Gordon MeLatchey.
The judge noted ED's submission that the offence of money laundering was not found during its investigation.
"Since during the investigations, the prosecution has failed to make out a offence under section 3 (money laundering) of the PMLA... as no offence under section 3 of the PMLA has been made out or has been committed, despite discreet investigations by the ED, therefore, there is no reason to continue with the present ECIR, as a consequence, the closure report filed by the ED stands accepted," the judge held.
The sole money laundering investigation was initiated by the ED based on the case lodged by the CBI.
According to the CBI, the works contracts related to Commonwealth Games were Games Workforce Service (GWS) and Games Planning, Project & Risk Management Services (GPPRMS).
An undue pecuniary gain was caused by the accused persons to the to the consortium of EKS and Ernst and Young, by way of awarding the two contracts in a deliberate and wrongful manner and caused corresponding loss of Rs 30 crore to OC, CWG, the CBI alleged.
The CBI later filed a closure report in January 2014, saying "no incriminating evidence surfaced during the investigation in the matter" and the allegations in the FIR could not be substantiated against the accused persons.
