Facebook was warned of apparent Russian data trawl in 2014, MPs told

as declared in "An engineer at Facebook notified the company in October 2014 that entities with Russian IP addresses had been using a Pinterest API key to pull over 3bn data points a day [from Facebook]," he said. It said they were legitimate data requests for approximately 6m items a day, not the 3bn claimed by the engineer. "Our fine for Facebook wasn't about whether UK users' data was shared with Cambridge Analytica. We fined Facebook because it allowed apps and app developers to harvest the personal data of its customers," Denham told the international grand committee on disinformation. Soon after, Facebook decided to cut off developers' access to the data of users' friends, in effect dooming the company.

Seized documents reveal that Facebook knew about Russian data harvesting as early as 2014

Facebook was apparently aware of Russian-linked data harvesting as early as 2014, according to an email from a Facebook engineer. The email was contained in internal documents that were seized by the UK Parliament and revealed at a hearing today by MP Damian Collins, via Bloomberg. Facebook didn't comment on the documents during the UK hearing. (Allan represented Facebook at the hearing after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg denied repeated requests to testify, according to The Washington Post.) The bigger issue is that Facebook is continuing its trend of not being transparent with the public about when it learned about Russian interferences.

British politician questions Facebook over Russian data collection

as declared in / Updated By Alastair Jamieson, Nick Bailey and Linda GivetashLONDON — A British lawmaker alleged on Tuesday that seized documents from Facebook show that a company engineer identified a major data collection effort based in Russia that had been previously undisclosed. It was not immediately clear what information was taken or how the data could have been used. Collins' question was based on a group of seized confidential Facebook documents from the developer of a now-defunct bikini photo-searching app. The documents contain revelations Facebook has been fighting to keep out of the public domain, The Observer newspaper reported. Ian Lucas, a British politician, questioned Allan on when Zuckerberg became aware of the improper use of data for targeted political ads by Cambridge Analytica and whether the company has taken action against other third-party developers for similar data breaches.

collected by :Roy Mark