it’s
investigating a security research report that shows Facebook user data can be
grabbed by third-party JavaScript trackers embedded on websites using Login
With
Facebook. The exploit lets these trackers gather a user’s data including
name, email address, age range, gender, locale, and profile photo depending on
what users originally provided to the website. It’s unclear what these trackers
do with the data, but many of their parent companies
including Tealium, AudienceStream, Lytics, and ProPS sell
publisher monetization services based on collected user data.
The abusive
scripts were found on 434 of the top 1 million websites including freelancer
site Fiverr.com, camera seller B&H Photo And Video, and cloud database
provider MongoDB. That’s according to Steven Englehardt and his
colleagues at Freedom To Tinker, which is hosted by Princeton’s Center For
Information Technology Policy.
Meanwhile,
concert site BandsInTown was found to be passing Login With Facebook user data
to embedded scripts on sites that install its Amplified advertising product. An
invisible BandsInTown iframe would load on these sites, pulling in user data
that was then accessible to embedded scripts. That let any malicious site using
BandsInTown learn the identity of visitors. BandsInTown has now fixed this
vulnerability.
TechCrunch
is still awaiting a formal statement from Facebook beyond “We will look into
this and get back to you.” After TechCrunch brough the issue to MongoDB’s
attention this morning, it investigated and just provided this statement “We
were unaware that a third-party technology was using a tracking script that
collects parts of Facebook user data. We have identified the source of the
script and shut it down.”
BandsInTown
tells me “Bandsintown does not disclose unauthorized data to third parties and
upon receiving an email from a researcher presenting a potential vulnerability
in a script running on our ad platform, we quickly took the appropriate actions
to resolve the issue in full.” Fiverr did not respond before press time.
The
discovery of these data security flaws comes at a vulnerable time for Facebook.
The company is trying to recover from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, CEO
Mark Zuckerberg just testified before congress, and today it unveiled
privacy updates to comply with Europe’s GDPR law. But Facebook’s recent
API changes designed to safeguard user data didn’t prevent these exploits.
And the situation shines more light on the little-understood ways Facebook
users are tracked around the Internet, not just on its site.
“When a user
grants a website access to their social media profile, they are not only trusting
that website, but also third parties embedded on that site” writes Englehardt.
This chart shows that what some trackers are pulling from users. Freedom To
Tinker warned OnAudience about another security issue recently, leading it to
stop collecting user info.
Facebook
could have identified these trackers and prevented these exploits with
sufficient API auditing. It’s currently ramping up API auditing as it hunts
down other developers that might have improperly shared, sold, or used data
like how Dr. Aleksandr Kogan’s app’s user data ended up in the hands of
Cambridge Analytica. Facebook could also change its systems to prevent
developers from taking an app-specific user ID and employing it to discover
that person’s permanent overarching Facebook user ID.
Revelations
like this are likely to beckon a bigger data backlash. Over the years, the
public had became complacent about the ways their data was exploited without
consent around the web. While it’s Facebook in the hot seat, other tech giants
like Google rely on user data and operate developer platforms that can be tough
to police. And news publishers, desperate to earn enough from ads to
survive, often fall in with sketchy ad networks and trackers.
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Zuckerberg
makes an easy target because the Facebook founder is still the CEO, allowing
critics and regulators to blame him for the social network’s failings. But any
company playing fast and loose with user data should be sweating.
Login With Facebook data hijacked by JavaScript trackers
Reviewed by Anand Yadav
on
April 19, 2018
Rating:
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