Facebook Doesn't Know What Happens to Users' Data, How It Spreads as Regulators Tighten Their Grip

The social media platform has been facing scrutiny and pressure from governments around the world following several cases where user data was deliberately harvested and misused, included to sway political preferences of the voters. Facebook, currently renamed as Meta*, was lambasted for its poor handling of its users' data.

Facebook engineers had no comprehensive knowledge about where and how their users' data could be accessed and had trouble understanding how to control it in line with reginal rules, Vice's Motherboard media outlet has reported.

According to a leaked internal document that Motherboard obtained, Facebook's team built "systems with open borders" and "open culture".

Now when Meta* faces a "tsunami" of privacy regulations, it has trouble keeping track of all the personal data at its disposal.

"We do not have an adequate level of control and explainability over how our systems use data, and thus we can’t confidently make controlled policy changes or external commitments such as 'we will not use X data for Y purpose'. And yet, this is exactly what regulators expect us to do", the document, provided by an anonymous source, said.

The document was allegedly drafted in 2021 by Facebook privacy engineers – a team that maintains Meta's key source of income – a system of ads that often relies on data provided by users about themselves.

According to Motherboard, engineers sounded the alarm with the report and called for changing the way Facebook handles users' data to avoid trouble with regulators around the world.

Specifically, an alleged lack of control over who can access users' data might prevent Facebook from meeting requirements to prevent repurposing of this data, which is required under the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It mandates the platform to only collect personal data about the user for a specific purpose and not use it later for achieving other goals – regardless of whether the platform or a third party does so.

An anonymous former Meta employee commented on the document, saying that it was "blunt" and showed that the social media giant's team knew how much data they have accumulated from users. But they said the firm's understanding of who can access it is a "complete shitshow".

"It is a damning admission, but also offers Facebook legal cover because of how much it would cost Facebook to fix this mess. It gives them the excuse for keeping that much private data simply because at their scale and with their business model and infrastructure design they can plausibly claim that they don't know what they have", the Meta ex-employee said.

What Does Meta Say?

Meta's representatives interviewed by Motherboard did not confirm the authenticity of the report, but noted that it "reflects the technical solutions" that the company is building in order to manage users' data better and in accordance with new and planned future regulations.

"We do, in fact, have extensive processes and controls to manage data and comply with privacy regulations", the company said.

In order to prepare for a possible future tightening of privacy laws, the company is creating tools to analyse user data and how it is handled internally using automatic algorithms. But Meta's employees did not elaborate on how the analysis specifically helps them build new data infrastructure to meet tighter requirements.

At the same time, the company's representatives dismissed the idea that the leaked document shows that Meta is not complying with governments' privacy regulations.

"Considering this document does not describe our extensive processes and controls to comply with privacy regulations, it's simply inaccurate to conclude that it demonstrates non-compliance", Meta said.

The leaked document also suggested that Facebook was building a "short term" solution called "Basic Ads" to its data privacy issues with regulators. The project was due to be rolled out in Europe in 2020, but has not been launched yet.

"When launched, Facebook users will be able to ‘opt-out’ from having almost all of their 3P [third party] and 1P [first party] data used by Ads systems - page likes, posts, friends list, etc", the document said about the "Basic Ads" project.

*Meta is considered extremist organisation and is banned in Russia

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