Marriott International, one of the largest hotel chains in the world, revealed that its Starwood reservations database had been hacked and that the personal information of up to 500 million guests could have been stolen. An unauthorized party had accessed the database since 2014.
Facebook executives in recent years appeared to discuss giving access to their valuable user data to some companies that bought advertising when it was struggling to launch its mobile ad business, according to internal emails quoted in newly-unredacted court filings. In an ongoing federal court case against Facebook, the plaintiffs claim that the social media giant doled out people’s data secretly and selectively in exchange for advertising purchases or other concessions, even as others were cut off, ruining their businesses.
On Nov 27, the Senate Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Consumer Protection held an oversight hearing on the Federal Trade Commission. The hearing examined the FTC’s “priorities in promoting competition and consumer protection, the ongoing innovation hearings and how changes in technology impact the agency, and whether the FTC should have expanded authority with respect to privacy and data security.” In other words -- is the FTC doing a good enough job? And if not, what needs change?
Facebook will release an early report on an audit of civil rights on its platform by the end of 2018, according to Color of Change, an advocacy organization that demanded the move in a meeting with COO Sheryl Sandberg. The social network hasn’t yet fulfilled any of the other requests made by the group, called Color Of Change, which has asked Facebook to: fire its top policy executive, a former Republican staffer, release data on voter suppression attempts on Facebook products, and release opposition research that a right-leaning consulting firm produced trying to link the civil rights group
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