{"id":19669,"date":"2018-11-21T14:19:57","date_gmt":"2018-11-21T14:19:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/packetstormsecurity.com\/news\/view\/29536\/Facebook-Ads-Urge-Its-Staff-To-Leak-Secrets.html"},"modified":"2018-11-21T14:19:57","modified_gmt":"2018-11-21T14:19:57","slug":"facebook-ads-urge-its-staff-to-leak-secrets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/facebook-ads-urge-its-staff-to-leak-secrets\/","title":{"rendered":"Facebook Ads Urge Its Staff To Leak Secrets"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"LeakyImage copyright<\/span> Getty Images\/BBC<\/span> <\/span> <\/figure>\n

A campaign group advocating the break-up of Facebook has subverted the social network’s advertising tools to tempt its employees into leaking information.<\/p>\n

Freedom from Facebook says it targeted ads at the technology company’s staff, promoting a “safe space” website where they can anonymously submit “whistleblower tips”.<\/p>\n

Facebook declined to comment. <\/p>\n

But the BBC understands it is not blocking the ads nor keeping a special log of who has viewed them.<\/p>\n

The stunt comes a week after the New York Times revealed that a public-relations company used by Facebook had circulated claims that the controversial billionaire George Soros was the hidden backer of the Freedom from Facebook campaign.<\/p>\n

Mr Soros’s Open Society Foundations subsequently accused Facebook of conducting a “smear campaign”<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, and chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, have since said they were unaware of the effort and have ended their contract with Definers, the PR company involved. <\/p>\n

Image copyright<\/span> Getty Images<\/span> <\/span>
Image caption<\/span> Mr Soros is a popular target of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories <\/span> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, a leaked internal memo from Facebook’s departing communications chief, Elliot Schrage, has since acknowledged he was responsible.<\/p>\n

“When the ‘Freedom from Facebook’ campaign emerged as a so-called grassroots coalition, [our communications] team asked Definers to help understand the groups behind them,” the memo – made public by the Techcrunch news site<\/a> – states.<\/p>\n

“They learned that George Soros was funding several of the coalition members. They prepared documents and distributed these to the press to show that this was not simply a spontaneous grassroots movement.<\/p>\n

“Responsibility for these decisions rests with leadership of the communications team. That’s me.”<\/p>\n

Mr Schrage’s duties are being taken on by the UK’s former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who has been charged with carrying out a wider review of Facebook’s lobbying efforts.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Mr Zuckerberg gave an interview to CNN in which he said he did not see the need to step down from being chairman<\/a> and hoped that he would work together with Ms Sandberg for “decades more to come”.<\/p>\n

Micro-targeted ads<\/h2>\n

Facebook used to have a reputation for having few leaks but that has changed over recent months following the Cambridge Analytica affair and other scandals.<\/p>\n

One leak – recently reported by the Wall Street Journal<\/a> – revealed that an internal survey by Facebook’s human resources team had flagged a sharp drop in the percentage of workers who said they were optimistic about its future.<\/p>\n

Image copyright<\/span> Facebook<\/span> <\/span>
Image caption<\/span> Facebook allows adverts to be targeted at employees of specific companies, including itself <\/span> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Although Freedom from Facebook has not revealed how it has gone about micro-targeting the workers, there is an option in the company’s ad tool to direct a campaign at those who list their employer as Facebook HQ.<\/p>\n

It says that close to 89,000 people have done so.<\/p>\n

Another alternative would be to use a list of known email addresses belonging to Facebook workers.<\/p>\n

The move adds to pressure on the company at a time when it is having to deal with a growing number of controversies.<\/p>\n

In recent days alone:<\/p>\n