Meta denies giving Netflix access to users' private messages.This claim started recently Currently in circulation at X After X owner Elon Musk amplified multiple Post Regarding that matter,oh” and “Yeah'' The claim refers to court filings that surfaced as part of the discovery process in a class action lawsuit over data privacy practices between consumer groups and Facebook's parent company Meta.
The document claims that Netflix and Facebook have a “special relationship” and that Facebook has even reduced spending on original programming for its Facebook Watch video service to avoid competing with Netflix, a major Facebook advertiser. . It also says that Netflix accessed Meta's “Inbox API” to provide the streamer with “programmatic access to users' private message inboxes on Facebook.”
These are some of the claims that Mr. Musk responded to in the X post, leading to a chorus of angry responses about how Facebook's user data is being sold, so to speak.
Meanwhile, Mehta denies the accuracy of the document's claims.
Andy Stone, Director of Communications at Meta, said: Reposted original X post On Tuesday, Netflix issued a statement disputing that it had been given access to users' private messages.
“A shocking falsehood,” Stone wrote to X. “Meta did not share people's private messages with Netflix. This agreement allowed people to message their friends on Facebook about what they were watching on Netflix directly from the Netflix app.” Such agreements are common in the industry.”
In other words, Meta claims that while Netflix had programmatic access to users' inboxes, it did not use that access to read private messages.
Other than Stone's X post, Meta has not made any further comments.
However, the New York Times reported in 2018 that Netflix and Spotify can read users' private messages, according to documents obtained. Meta denied those claims at the time in a blog post titled “The Facts About Facebook's Messaging Partnership,” stating that Netflix and Spotify allow consumers to directly message friends about what they're listening to on Spotify or watching on Netflix. He explained that he was accessing an API that allows him to send . Those companies' respective apps. For this reason, companies offer “write access” for composing messages to friends, “read access” for users to read messages from their friends, and “delete access” for users to delete messages from third-party apps. case) was required. The message will also be deleted from Facebook.
“No third party could read your private messages or write messages to your friends without your permission. Many news articles said that we were sending private messages to our partners. , which is incorrect,” the blog post states.
In any case, Messenger did not implement default end-to-end encryption until December 2023, but if this had been practiced, there is no doubt that these kinds of claims would not have started. The lack of encrypted communication combined with read/write access to your message inbox means there is no guarantee that your messages are protected, even if it was not the focus of your business arrangements. .
While Stone downplays Netflix's ability to snoop on private messages, it's worth noting that the streamer was given a level of access not available elsewhere.
The document alleges that Netflix accessed Facebook's Titan API, a private API that enables integration with Facebook's messaging app. In exchange for access to the Inbox API, Netflix also agrees to provide the social networking company with “bi-weekly written reports” containing information about recommendation submissions and recipient clicks. They also agreed to keep the API agreement confidential.
According to the document, Netflix spent $40 million on Facebook ads by 2015 and allowed Netflix to use user data to target and optimize Facebook ads. In 2017, Netflix spent $150 million on Facebook ads and agreed to provide the company with “cross-device intent signals.”
Netflix and Facebook maintain a close relationship, with then-Netflix CEO Reed Hastings (and Facebook board member until April 2019), CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and COO Sheryl Sandberg. He was in direct communication with Facebook (Meta) executives, including Mr. .
In order to preserve Netflix's advertising business, Mr. Zuckerberg himself emailed Fiji Simo, head of Facebook Watch, in May 2018, saying that as the social network exited direct competition with Netflix, Watch originals announced that the sports budget would be cut by $750 million. Facebook has been building its Watch business for two years, and he introduced the Watch tab in the US in August 2017.
Elsewhere in the filing, the filing details details such as how Meta secretly snooped on Snapchat traffic.