| Cult of Mac

Get your fair share of Facebook’s $725 million privacy payout

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You owe me, like, a dollar!
That’s a Futurama reference.
Image: Flying Logos/Wikimedia Commons/D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

If you lived in the United States in the last 15 years and you used Facebook, you can fill out a brief form and claim your part of a $725 million privacy settlement. This marks the end of a class-action lawsuit wherein the company admitted that U.K. data mining company Cambridge Analytica accessed Facebook users’ data without their consent.

You have until Friday, August 25, to file a claim. It only takes a few minutes. How much you get depends on how many people take the payment — it could be as low as $1.50 if every person in the United States fills it out.

Making a claim also stops you from pursuing a separate claim against Meta, Facebook’s parent company. However, if you take no action, you won’t get anything as a result of the Facebook data scandal.

Facebook left huge database of users’ phone numbers exposed

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Facebook owns 4 of the top 10 apps of the past decade
Oh look! Another Facebook data leak.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

A Facebook server containing hundreds of millions of users’ phone numbers was left completely exposed to potential attackers, according to a new report.

The data linked each phone number to a user’s unique Facebook ID, potentially exposing personal information that could be used against victims. Some of the records also contained the person’s name, gender and country.

Zuck is prepared to drag Apple into Facebook’s congressional hearing

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Facebook employees
Apple has had its share of data scandals too, Facebook's CEO notes.
Photo: Facebook

Steve Jobs once promised a “thermonuclear war” against Google. Here in 2018, it seems more like Apple is in more of a Cold War with fellow tech giant Facebook — based on recent comments made by both companies.

While we’ve argued before that the congressional investigation of Facebook only helps Apple, it seems that Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is doing his best to hurt Apple, too. Here’s how.

How to kick out companies that access your Facebook profile

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Facebook Profile
You might be amazed how many companies you allow to read your complete Facebook profile.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

Facebook now lists in one place all the companies that you’ve given access to your profile info. This makes deleting this access a snap, right from your iPhone or iPad.

You may have taken a silly Facebook quiz to find out which droid from Star Wars you most resemble. Just by doing so, you allowed the company that made up the quiz entry to your full profile info. And even if that was a decade ago, they still have access today.

Zuckerberg fires back at Cook over Facebook privacy diss

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Facebook employees
It'll take a Facebook a few years to dig out of this hole.
Photo: Facebook

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has taken exception to Apple CEO Tim Cook’s comments that Facebook doesn’t care about its customers because it sells their data to advertisers.

Zuck went on the defensive in one of his first interviews since news broke that Cambridge Analytica leaked the personal data of 50 million users. The interview touched a number of topics, but when asked specifically about Cook’s comments Zuckerberg unleashed a tangent on why Tim Cook is wrong.

How Facebook data scandal could boost Apple

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Facebook employees
Facebook is one of many tech giants that builds is business on user data.
Photo: Facebook

Thanks to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, a backlash is brewing against the way tech giants like Facebook monetize data. This could result in government regulation, which has the potential to upend the business models of some of the world’s biggest companies.

Luckily, Apple is practically immune. Here’s why 2018’s biggest tech scandal could actually help the world’s biggest tech company.

Tim Cook disses Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook privacy

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WWDC 2019
Tim Cook just roasted Facebook's CEO.
Photo: Apple

Apple CEO Tim Cook threw some major shade at Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg during an interview this morning discussing Apple’s stances on education and user privacy.

Facebook has come under fire over the last few days after it was discovered that data for millions of users was leaked to Cambridge Analytica. In his interview this morning, Tim Cook said that Facebook should have regulated its self, but its too late for that now.

Mark Zuckerberg should have listened to Steve Jobs’ privacy advice

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walt-mossberg-steve-jobs
Steve Jobs dropped some knowledge on Zuck.
Photo: Joi Ito/Flickr CC

Facebook and CEO Mark Zuckerberg are wrapped up in controversy over the social network’s link to data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica.

The alleged data abuse has caused an outcry among both the public and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, including one of the co-founders of WhatsApp and Space X and Tesla founder Elon Musk. But it may not have come to this had Zuckerberg followed a piece of advice laid out by Steve Jobs back in 2010.