How insidious!
“we encourage you to consider tools which block unwanted third-party
scripts like the one provided by Facebook.”
- where can I go to learn more about that specifically?
Thank you Greg, for having the unenviable task of being the bearer of bad
news, and to all those involved in this; you had with the talent to
identify and remove this code, and the principles to tell us about it.
On Sat, 17 Mar 2018 at 04:22, Michael Peel <email(a)mikepeel.net> wrote:
Hi Gregory,
Thank you and the WMF for sharing this information so quickly after the
event. It’s regrettable that this happened, but openness is the best way
forward here. The WMF is being exceptional both with spotting this kind of
issue so quickly and being publicly open about the fact that it happened.
Is there a phabricator ticket that is tracking this issue and/or a wiki
page that documents the issue and the steps that will be taken to avoid it
happening again in the future?
Thanks,
Mike
On 16 Mar 2018, at 22:57, Gregory Varnum
<gvarnum(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
On 14 March and 15 March 2018, a CentralNotice banner appeared to some
logged-out
users viewing English Wikipedia pages. The banner contained
JavaScript hosted by Facebook, which allowed Facebook to collect traffic
data from those who visited a page with a banner. The banner was prepared
by the Wikimedia Foundation. The Foundation turned the banner off as soon
as we learned how the script was running, and its potential scope. We have
also removed all references to the code in question from CentralNotice on
Meta-Wiki.
The code utilized in this banner was based on an unused prototype
created by an
outside vendor. Because the prototype was never enabled, the
vendor’s prototype code was not subjected to our standard quality assurance
process. However, we made the mistake of reusing the code for a different
purpose, and implementing it based on recommendations in documentation from
Twitter and Facebook to improve the appearance of shared links. At the
time, our understanding was that the platforms would only receive traffic
data if the user clicked on the link. Although this was true for Twitter,
the Facebook code operated differently.
We discovered the problematic link configurations during our ongoing
monitoring of
live banners. The recommended code enhanced not only the
appearance of links, it also enhanced Facebook's ability to collect
information on people visiting non-Facebook sites. As soon as we realized
these banners were sharing information without even having to click the
link, we disabled them and began an investigation. Staff in multiple
departments are collaboratively reviewing the incident as well as
procedural and technical improvements to prevent future incidents.
While this sort of tracking is commonplace today across most of the
internet, it
is not consistent with our policies. We are disappointed that
this type of hidden data collection is routinely recommended by major
platforms, without clearer disclosure.
These practices are why we all must regularly take routine steps to
maintain a
secure computer and account. As the Wikimedia Foundation
continues to explore ways we can do that within Wikimedia's platform, we
encourage you to consider tools which block unwanted third-party scripts
like the one provided by Facebook.
We apologize for sending this late on a Friday (San Francisco time).
However, we
wanted to provide this information as quickly as possible.
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