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Meta is abnegate that it gave Netflix access to user ’ private messages . The claim of late begancirculating on Xafter X proprietor Elon Musk amplifiedmultiplepostsabout the matter by replying “ Wow ” and “ Yup . ” The title reference acourt filingthat emerged as part of the discovery processin a form - action lawsuitover data secrecy practices between a group of consumer and Facebook ’s parent , Meta .
The document alleges that Netflix and Facebook had a “ special human relationship ” and that Facebook evencut spending on original programmingfor its Facebook Watch video armed service so as not to compete with Netflix , a large Facebook advertiser . It also say that Netflix had access code to Meta ’s “ Inbox API ” that offered the streamer “ programmatic access to Facebook ’s drug user ’s secret message inboxes . ”
This is the part of the title that Musk reply to in posts on X , leading to a chorus of raging reply about how Facebook user data was for sale , so to speak .
Meta , for its part , is denying the truth of the written document ’s claim .
Meta ’s communication theory director , Andy Stone , reposted the original X poston Tuesday with a argument disputing that Netflix had been given memory access to users ’ private messages .
“ Shockingly untrue , ” Stone indite on X. “ Meta did n’t share people ’s secret message with Netflix . The agreement provide hoi polloi to message their friend on Facebook about what they were watching on Netflix , directly from the Netflix app . Such agreements are old-hat in the industry . ”
In other Book , Meta is claim that Netflix did have programmatic access code to users ’ inboxes , but did not use that access to translate private messages .
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Beyond Stone ’s disco biscuit post , Meta has not provided further comment .
However , The New York Times had antecedently reported in 2018 thatNetflix and Spotify could understand users ’ individual messages , according to document it had hold . Meta denied those claims at the time viaa web log posttitled “ fact About Facebook ’s Messaging Partnerships , ” where it excuse that Netflix and Spotify had access to genus Apis that allowed consumers to message friends about what they were listening to on Spotify or watch over on Netflix instantly from those company ’ respective apps . This required the companies to have “ write admittance ” to compose subject matter to friends , “ read access ” to allow users to read substance back from friend , and “ delete access , ” which meant if you delete a substance from the third - party app , it would also delete the message from Facebook .
“ No third company was reading your private messages , or writing content to your friends without your permission . Many news stories inculpate we were shipping over secret messages to married person , which is not correct , ” the blog military post stated .
In any result , Messenger did n’t implementdefault end - to - final stage encryption until December 2023 , a practice that would have made these sorts of claims a non - starter , as it would n’t have left elbow room for incertitude . The lack of encipher communication theory conflate with read / write memory access to content inboxes mean there ’s no warrantee that messages were protected , even if that was n’t the focus of the business sector arrangement .
While Stone is downplay Netflix ’s ability to stag on secret substance , it ’s worth noting that the banner was provided with a horizontal surface of access that other companies did not have .
The written document claims that Netflix had access to Facebook ’s “ Titan API , ” a secret API that had allowed it to desegregate with Facebook ’s message app . In central for the Inbox API access , Netflix also agree to supply the societal networking company with a “ write account every two weeks ” with information about its good word sends and recipient role chink and hold to keep its API correspondence secret .
By 2015 , Netflix was drop $ 40 million on Facebook ads , the document say , and was allowing Netflix substance abuser data to be used for Facebook ad targeting and optimization . In 2017 , Netflix agreed to spend $ 150 million on Facebook advert and allow the company with “ cross - equipment intent signal . ”
Netflix and Facebook maintain a close relationship , with then - Netflix CEO Reed Hastings ( and Facebook board member until April 2019 ) having direct communication with Facebook ( Meta ) execs , including CEO Mark Zuckerberg , COO Sheryl Sandberg , Comms VP Elliot Schrage and CTO Andrew Bosworth .
To maintain Netflix ’s publicizing business organization , Zuckerberg himself email the head of Facebook Watch , Fidji Simo , in May 2018 to tell her that Watch ’s budget for originals and sports was being cut by $ 750 million as the societal web exited from vie directly with Netflix . Facebook had been building the Watch business for two years and had onlyintroduced the Watch tab in the U.S. in August 2017 .
Elsewhere in the filing , Meta details how itsnooped on Snapchat dealings in mystery , among other thing .
Facebook snooped on users ’ Snapchat traffic in secret project , documents reveal
