With the forthcoming opening of its first physical store, Meta tries to leave behind the privacy issues that Facebook is providing it even in these hours with the unveiling of an internal document on user data management.
The news continues at Meta, formerly Facebook Inc, with the hi-tech giant founded by Mark Zuckerberg who, lately, is struggling between the privacy issues raised by his social network, and the attempt to look ahead, portraying himself as a ‘ a company much larger than its individual services.
Facebook has never had a good relationship with the management of user data, just remember the vulnerability found in 2019 that had allowed anyone to view the telephone numbers of more than 400 million users of the social network, or when last year in a market in the dark web the data (including Facebook ID, full names, telephone numbers, dates of birth, GPS locations, emails, etc) of 533 million users of the platform in blue were found. The bad scenario surrounding the handling of personal data, however, is apparently much more serious than previously believed, and within Menlo Park, they are aware of it.
In the past few hours, Motherboard magazine has published an internal note from the privacy engineers of the Facebook AD division in which it is explained that the platform collects and stores all together, including sensitive data, user information collected with its tools and with those of third parties, so much so that, to begin with, it is difficult to perform a specific check of a part of this data.
This also entails a level of general lack of understanding and control over how corporate systems manage such data: ipso facto, it is both difficult to make changes to the policies, trusting that they will give the desired results, and to assure third parties, for example regulators that if they expect it, that a given X will not be exploited for purpose Y. This, it is explained to the upper floors of the company, “could expose the company to penalties for data control”.
Meanwhile, also to leave behind the difficulties deriving from its well-known social network, the parent company Meta has announced an initiative concerning the physical world, with the opening on May 9, on its Californian campus in Burlingame, of a Meta Store. , a physical store of about 144 square meters, which will allow users to try the products of access to the metaverse, such as the Quest 2 viewer (with related demos) or those devices aimed at improving daily life, such as the Portal smart displays, with possibility to buy them at retail. Ray Ban Stories, the company’s smart glasses, will not be available for purchase at the headquarters, even if the company said it has introduced, on Meta.com, the Shop tab where it groups, with the possibility of buying, all the products that offers.