Source:  The Royal Bank of Canada is disputing a report in the New York Times that says the bank, along with many other companies, had the ability to read, write and delete users messages on Facebook’s messaging platform.

The report, published in the New York Times on Tuesday is based on hundreds of pages of internal documents obtained by the paper, and corroborating interviews with dozens of employees.

CBC News has not been able to independently confirm the veracity of the documents, but according to the Times, they outline myriad ways the social media giant gave access to users’ data to corporations on the platform, even as it was pledging to crack down on privacy breaches.

The report alleges that Facebook allowed companies to see the names of a user’s entire friends list without permission, and in some cases gave them access to users’ private messages. In other cases, companies could get access to other forms of personal information such as contact information from a massive pool of Facebook accounts.

All in all, the report says more than 150 different companies, primarily in the technology field, were given access to reams of data about Facebook users, without the users’ knowledge or permission.

Facebook is the fucking devil.  Not only are they responsible for why you feel like shit about yourself after perusing everyone else’s presentational living, but they also found a loophole to share YOUR personal info, contact lists, and private messages to people without your permission.

For their part, FB says they never sold the information.  Instead, a spokesperson said, “whoooah…all we did was explore how to help companies like RBC get in touch with our customer base.”

“Over the years, we’ve partnered with other companies so people can use Facebook on devices and platforms that we don’t support ourselves,” Facebook’s Steve Satterfield, director of privacy and public policy said.

Translation: ‘We sold the shit out of your information, but we call it partnering so suck it.’

The process of these hearing’s with Google and FB should be eye-opening and something you need to pay attention too.  The gist of it:

You don’t own your information after you sign up for FB or Google.  They do.  The box’s you check when you sign up for these accounts (which you can’t sign up for unless you check) is you agreeing to their terms of service. Those terms of service effectively remove the right you have to the information you put on those platforms belong lock, stock, and tomahawk to the company who own the platform.

Exciting huh.

If you didn’t have FB anxiety, you should have it now.  Just delete the fucking thing.  Seriously.  Do you really give a shit about high school friends you haven’t kept in touch with?  Do you enjoy seeing pictures of your friends paddling their way through the Grand Canyon or having dinner at the top of the CN tower with their ‘BAE?’.

Facebook should make it mandatory for members to include real things they’re actually dealing with instead of the presentational bullshit they want you to see.

“Today was LOLZ!  I shit my pants on the way to work.  I was recently diagnosed with IBS, and my wife left me because I was caught masturbating in public!  ROTFLMAO!!

“Happy anniversary to my wonderful husband of 6 years!  The day we met, you became my everything. After 4 miscarriages because of my prescription pill addiction, you left for months to bone your way through a series of waitresses and two of my friends and we celebrated with a dinner where we pretended to like each other because we’re not in a financial place to get divorced and I’m pretty sure you gave me Chlamydia!  XOXOXO!”

Wouldn’t it be great to know your not alone in this world of imperfect people and relationships instead of feeling like you have failed at life everytime you pick up your phone?

If you hate FB as much as I do, the silver lining is it seems they are selling lies sad people look for friends with, online.