This Website Stores Data From Over 400 Million Facebook Profiles, Including Yours Probably
Mar. 29, 2018TheFacebookdata privacy crisis doesn’t seem to be ending anytime soon as new developments keep popping up every other day. Recently, reports revealed that Facebookwhistleblower Christopher Wylie also had access to the Cambridge Analytica dataand may have used it to pitch microtargeting tools for Trump’s presidential campaign. Now, reports about a website calledProfile Enginereveal that it has access to data of over 400 million Facebook profiles.
Profile Engine, which is a fairly low budget search engine, offers advanced search for Facebook profiles. The website was started in 2007 and is partly owned by the Auckland University of Technology, and allows anyone to find people on social media, by knowing a few details about them.
The websiteclaims:
Even though the information may not be up to date, it’s worth noting that the website continues to legally hold the data, which goes against the implementation of the European “right to be forgotten”.
In its defense, the website claims thatFacebookis contractually obliged to keep the data up to date, however,“Facebook have refused to keep this public data up to date and they refuse to notify us when data is deleted from Facebook or made private, therefore we cannot automatically delete data from Profile Engine when it is deleted from Facebook.”
According to New Zealand’sprivacy commissioner,“Profile Engine lawfully acquired and now holds the user data of around 450 million individuals”and its methods of acquiring data do not breach personal privacy, suggesting that the battle of ownership of personal data isn’t going to end anytime soon.
