The Portuguese Government and Facebook: seemingly good friends

[TyagoDani]

   As just released a few hours ago on the Portuguese tech focussed web publication, Exame Informática, João Pina, an investigator in this field, has publicly announced on Twitter his findings when probing at the government's own websites. He has found out that the government authentication system (autenticacao.gov.pt) is sharing the personal information of whoever accesses the page with private company Facebook. Such findings have in the mean time been confirmed to the OP by another specialist that has prefered to stay anonymous.

 

   The website in cause has an embedded Facebook SDK into it. It has been so far confirmed that at least the user's IP address and browser version are being shared with the private company.
 

 

Quote

Every time I go to a website I'm giving away certain data. Now, I don't have to give them to third parties, which is what is happening here. Above all especially with Facebook being involved in all this data privacy scandals. There isn't a single technical reason for this to be happening.
The first thing that Facebook's SDK does, when the website is opened, is to embed an iframe into that webpage. That iframe then contains a connection to facebook.com and from that moment on Facebook knows that, if the user is logged into the social network, he is accessing that site.

 

   This then allows Facebook to cross and match user identifiable data. Even if the user isn't logged in to Facebook, it can still keep track of the IP and browser version.

 

   João Pina also defends that the AMA (in english AAM or Agency for the Administrative Modernization), the institution responsible for the website in question, is also logging the user's email used to log in to Facebook, as found in the webpage's code.

 

   Presented with the facts, the AMA has forwarded any technical clarifications to the information available on the government's website.

 

   In a tab dedicated to social networks, it is stated that "no data is sent to social networks, according to the best practices". (comment: whatever that means...)

 

   Apart from this, it was also found that this platforms also have Google's data analysis platform, Analytics, embedded.

 

 

   As a Portuguese citizen myself I can only say that this is a complete and disgusting abuse on citizen privacy and that I really hope this doesn't go without severe punishment, not only for AMA but also for the government for not keeping tabs on who they should or being compliant and obviously for Mr. Zuck's childish 15 year old teenager.

 

Source: Expert reveals that nation's authentication website is sharing data with Facebook - Perito revela que site de autenticação do Estado está a partilhar dados com o Facebook

[Fnige]

Not-Spain is Now teaming with facebook

 

WHY?

[NunoLava1998]

Não faz diference, porque todos os portuguêses de 40 anos ou mais é garantido estar no Facebook e a rir a memes Boomer.

O que estou a fazer com a minha vida? É 1:21 da manhã.

[cj09beira]

as if my faith in goverment levels were high.... oh well 

i will be mad about tomorow (2am here)

[strajk-]

Not football so it doesn't matter.

[LAwLz]

I have not looked into the details (because I can't read Spanish) but to me it sounds like someone on the web developer team thought "hey, it would be cool if we let users login with their Facebook account". I mean, it's an easy way to offload responsibility of keeping passwords safe to Facebook which has a ton of experience in that field (despite some hiccups). However, all websites with a "login to facebook", or even a "share to Facebook" button are sending a lot of data to Facebook by default.

 

Basically, I don't think the Portuguese government decided "let's share stuff with Facebook!". Instead I think they thought "let's implement this convenient feature" without fully knowing or caring that it means Facebook gets a ton of data about users.

I do not think they had any bad intentions.

[strajk-]

45 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

I don't think the Portuguese government decided "let's share stuff with Facebook!

I share that sentiment, most likely it has just been poor planning and execution, just like with any portuguese project funded by the government, wouldn't be a new thing which is unfortunate.

Every year I get baffled by the amount of shitty implementation I find there on vacation in comparison to where I live.

 

Although there still has to be a project that tops the failure that is the electronic toll system their highway uses, great new highways that nobody uses since its too expensive, unless you're someone that lives in the vicinity of a big city like Porto and Lisbon.

In regards to that, a better system could had been a sticker you slap on your windshield that you could buy in any supermarket or gas station to drive in all highways for a whole year, kind of what Switzerland is currently using and Germany is going to probably use soon as well.

I would however keep the EasyToll system for any foreign car.

[NunoLava1998]

7 hours ago, LAwLz said:

I have not looked into the details (because I can't read Spanish) but to me it sounds like someone on the web developer team thought "hey, it would be cool if we let users login with their Facebook account". I mean, it's an easy way to offload responsibility of keeping passwords safe to Facebook which has a ton of experience in that field (despite some hiccups). However, all websites with a "login to facebook", or even a "share to Facebook" button are sending a lot of data to Facebook by default.

 

Basically, I don't think the Portuguese government decided "let's share stuff with Facebook!". Instead I think they thought "let's implement this convenient feature" without fully knowing or caring that it means Facebook gets a ton of data about users.

I do not think they had any bad intentions.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>spanish

Probably that though. Government here isn't exactly known for being good at technology

[cj09beira]

7 hours ago, strajk- said:

Although there still has to be a project that tops the failure that is the electronic toll system their highway uses, great new highways that nobody uses since its too expensive, unless you're someone that lives in the vicinity of a big city like Porto and Lisbon.

In regards to that, a better system could had been a sticker you slap on your windshield that you could buy in any supermarket or gas station to drive in all highways for a whole year, kind of what Switzerland is currently using and Germany is going to probably use soon as well.

I would however keep the EasyToll system for any foreign car.

via verde does exactly that, all it takes is money and a small plastic box on the windscreen 

[strajk-]

27 minutes ago, cj09beira said:

via verde does exactly that, all it takes is money and a small plastic box on the windscreen 

I suspected someone was going to bring Via Verde up, you still pay tolls with that.

In Switzerland you buy pic related and you're good for the whole year, no more tolls, until the 31st January of the next year where you have to get a new one, number is the year:

[NunoLava1998]

44 minutes ago, cj09beira said:

via verde does exactly that, all it takes is money and a small plastic box on the windscreen 

Vivo na Madeira. Não temos portagens, mas ainda temos autoestradas e vias rápidas usando o programa da SCUT. L

[Chett_Manly]

The Facebook thing I don't see a legitimate reason for, but Google Analytics is actually a powerful tool in understanding how your website is being used. My own company has used it to help understand how users move through the website, whats working and not working, and improve things.

 

You want your Government running analytics on websites to confirm they are working as intended and figure out problem areas.

[RejZoR]

21 hours ago, Chett_Manly said:

The Facebook thing I don't see a legitimate reason for, but Google Analytics is actually a powerful tool in understanding how your website is being used. My own company has used it to help understand how users move through the website, whats working and not working, and improve things.

 

You want your Government running analytics on websites to confirm they are working as intended and figure out problem areas.

I sure as hell don't want my government doing ANYTHING with scummy Fecesbook.

[Trik'Stari]

On 9/12/2019 at 8:18 PM, SlimyPython said:

Not-Spain is Now teaming with facebook

 

WHY?

Probably because all the governments don't like the anonymity the internet affords people, and are working with social media companies like Facebook and Twitter to undo any and all anonymity they can.

 

To what end? Well, I'll leave that to your imagination.

[Animal901]

On 9/13/2019 at 1:52 AM, LAwLz said:

I have not looked into the details (because I can't read Spanish) 

They speak portugese.