A new book alleges that Facebook employees have exploited user data for personal objectives, Business Insider reported.
Fifty-two Facebook employees were fired between January 2014 and August 2015 for abusing user data according to a new book titled, “An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook’s Battle for Domination,” Business Insider (BI) reported.
One engineer used data to find a woman who left their shared hotel room while they were on vacation in Europe. He tracked her at another hotel, according to Business Insider.
A Facebook engineer abused access to user data to track down a woman who had left their hotel room after they fought on vacation, new book says https://t.co/kA5skSQQnK
— Business Insider (@BusinessInsider) July 13, 2021
Another engineer reportedly dug up information about a woman he had gone on a date with after he stopped hearing from her. He was able to access “years of private conversations with friends over Facebook messenger, events attended, photographs uploaded (including those she had deleted), and posts she had commented or clicked on,” the book read, according to BI. He could also reportedly see her current location through the Facebook app on the woman’s phone.
Most of the engineers who exploited user data were men who viewed the profiles of women they were interested in, according BI.
The book claims that Facebook employees have access to user data in order to “cut away the red tape that slowed down engineers,” according to BI. (RELATED: Personal Data Of Over 500 Million Facebook Users Leaked Online)
“We’ve always had zero tolerance for abuse and have fired every single employee ever found to be improperly accessing data,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement, according to Business Insider. “Since 2015, we’ve continued to strengthen our employee training, abuse detection, and prevention protocols. We’re also continuing to reduce the need for engineers to access some types of data as they work to build and support our services.”