Social Networks

Pierluigi Paganini November 06, 2024
South Korea fined Meta $15.67M for illegally collecting and sharing Facebook users

South Korea fined Meta $15.67M for illegally collecting and sharing Facebook users’ sensitive data, including political views and sexual orientation, with advertisers. South Korea’s data privacy watchdog, Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC), fined Meta 21.62 billion won ($15.67 million) for illegally collecting sensitive personal information from Facebook users, including data about their political views and […]

Pierluigi Paganini September 28, 2024
Irish Data Protection Commission fined Meta €91 million for storing passwords in readable format

The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) fined Meta €91 million for storing the passwords of hundreds of millions of users in plaintext. The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) has fined Meta Platforms Ireland Limited (MPIL) €91 million ($100 million) for storing the passwords of hundreds of millions of users in plaintext, violating data protection regulations. […]

Pierluigi Paganini August 25, 2024
France police arrested Telegram CEO Pavel Durov

French police arrested Pavel Durov, founder and chief executive of Telegram, due to the lack of content moderation that advantaged criminal activity. Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of Telegram, was arrested at Bourget airport near Paris on Saturday evening. According to the media, the arrest is linked to an investigation in France concerning the lack […]

Pierluigi Paganini July 11, 2024
AI-Powered Russia’s bot farm operates on X, US and its allies warn

The US and its allies disrupted an AI-powered Russia-linked bot farm on the social media platform X relying on the Meliorator AI software. The U.S. FBI and Cyber National Mission Force, along with Dutch and Canadian intelligence and security agencies, warned social media companies about Russian state-sponsored actors using covert AI software, Meliorator, in disinformation […]

Pierluigi Paganini July 04, 2024
Brazil data protection authority bans Meta from training AI models with data originating in the country

Brazil’s data protection authority temporarily banned Meta from using data originating in the country to train its artificial intelligence. Brazil’s data protection authority, Autoridade Nacional de Proteção de Dados (ANPD), has imposed a temporary ban on Meta from processing users’ personal data for training its artificial intelligence (AI) models. “The National Data Protection Authority (ANPD) issued […]

Pierluigi Paganini June 18, 2024
Meta delays training its AI using public content shared by EU users 

Meta announced it is postponing the training of its large language models using public content from adult Facebook and Instagram users in the EU. Meta announced it is delaying the training of its large language models (LLMs) using public content shared by adults on Facebook and Instagram following the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) request. […]

Pierluigi Paganini June 05, 2024
CNN, Paris Hilton, and Sony TikTok accounts hacked via DMs

A vulnerability in the popular video-sharing platform TikTok allowed threat actors to take over the accounts of celebrities. Threat actors exploited a zero-day vulnerability in the video-sharing platform TikTok to hijack high-profile accounts. The vulnerability resides in the direct messages feature implemented by the platform, reported Forbes. The malware spreads through direct messages within the app […]

Pierluigi Paganini March 07, 2024
Snake, a new Info Stealer spreads through Facebook messages

Threat actors are using Facebook messages to spread a Python-based information stealer dubbed Snake, researchers warn. Cybereason researchers warn that threat actors are utilizing Facebook messages to spread the Snake malware, a Python-based information stealer. The researchers noticed that the threat actors are maintaining three different Python Infostealer variants. Two of these variants are regular […]

Pierluigi Paganini March 04, 2024
META hit with privacy complaints by EU consumer groups

This is my interview with TRT International on the Meta dispute with EU consumer groups, which are calling on the bloc to sanction the company EU consumer groups are calling on the bloc to sanction the company Meta – which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – for allegedly breaching privacy rules. Earlier this week, Meta […]

Pierluigi Paganini February 29, 2024
Researchers found a zero-click Facebook account takeover

A critical vulnerability in Facebook could have allowed threat actors to hijack any Facebook account, researcher warns. Meta addressed a critical Facebook vulnerability that could have allowed attackers to take control of any account. The Nepalese researcher Samip Aryal described the flaw as a rate-limiting issue in a specific endpoint of Facebook’s password reset flow. […]