How much is your Facebook data worth? Not a lot, it turns out.
Facebook FB, -1.25%[1] made agreements[2] with at least 60 makers of phones and other devices that gave them access to the personal information of users’ friends without their consent, The New York Times reported this week[3], citing company officials.
Facebook said in a blog post[4] that device makers it partnered with “signed agreements that prevented people’s Facebook information from being used for any other purpose than to recreate Facebook-like experiences.” Facebook also said partners like Apple AAPL, +0.07%[5] and Amazon AMZN, -0.04%[6] couldn’t “integrate the user’s Facebook features with their devices without the user’s permission.”
More disturbingly, perhaps: Cambridge Analytica improperly accessed 87 million Facebook users’ data[7], the social-media company acknowledged earlier this year. The data turned out to be invaluable, reportedly helping the company analyze the habits and opinions of millions of users in the runup to the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
In the aftermath of that scandal, all 2.2 billion Facebook users received a message on Facebook called “Protecting Your Information,” laying which third-party apps have access to your individual Facebook profile.
There’s a depressing aspect of many recent privacy violations: The most important parts of your identity can be sold online for just a few dollars.
Consumers have to spend hours of their time — and, sometimes, their own money — when they find out their driver’s license, Facebook “likes” or Social Security number have been exposed to hackers. But those who sell them are making only petty cash.
Don’t miss: Facebook prepares to reveal the 87 million accounts affected by privacy violation — what to do if you’re one of them[8]
That’s according to a new report from the content marketing agency Fractl, which analyzed all the fraud-related listings on three large “dark web” marketplaces — Dream, Point and Wall Street Market — over several days last month.
The “dark web” is part of the internet that people can only access by using special software. To create this report, Fractl accessed the dark web through the browser Tor. People buy other risky or illegal substances on the dark web, including drugs, pirated content like movies or music and materials that help with scams, including credit-card “skimmers.”
Facebook logins can be sold for $5.20 each...