A leaked internal document drafted by Facebook privacy engineers seen by Motherboard has revealed Facebook has no idea what it does with user personal data, or where it goes. Engineers from the Ad and Business Product section describe the risks the company is facing from the more robust and growing number of privacy regulations around the world. The document, which was written last year, claims Facebook cannot make firm commitments that it will "we will not use X data for Y purpose" despite regulations requiring just this. An excerpt in VICE magazine reads: "We've built systems with open borders. The result of these open systems and open culture is well described with an analogy: Imagine you hold a bottle of ink in your hand. This bottle of ink is a mixture of all kinds of user data (3PD, 1PD, SCD, Europe, etc.) You pour that ink into a lake of water (our open data systems; our open culture) … and it flows … everywhere," the document read. "How do you put that ink back in the bottle? How do you organize it again, such that it only flows to the allowed places in the lake?"
Read the Facebook Data Lineage Internal Document.
In related news, Bloomberg reports Meta warned investors that it may receive significant data-protection fines in the EU when DPAs finalise numerous ongoing investigations.
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