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DT Daily: Facebook’s privacy scandal continues with smartphone data revelation

After a week of bad news for both Facebook and its users, the social network’s data collection scandal doesn’t seem to be going away quietly. Facebook is denying that it collects call and text data from users… at least without their permission. Over the weekend, some Facebook archives were found to contain this call and text data from connected Android smartphones. It wasn’t very difficult to find this out either. Users downloaded their Facebook data records and discovered entire call and SMS records in the data dump.

If these scandals have looking to take control of your Facebook data, Take a look at our guides that show you how to boost your Facebook privacy, or even delete your account permanently.

As Spotify gears up for its eagerly anticipated initial stock listing early next week, the streaming music leader is offering up a rosy forecast for prospective investors. By the end of this year nearly 100 million people are predicted to be paying members of Spotify. The streaming music service currently has around 75 million paid subscribers. That’s roughly double Apple Music’s 36 million users. Predicting 25% growth in paid subscribers this year, Spotify is prioritizing growth over profits to compete with Apple.

Spotify will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange on April 3rd under the ticker symbol SA. This isn’t a typical IPO with most of the shares sold ahead of time. Spotify is opting for a rare direct listing which means the initial stock price will be anyone’s guess.

For some people, going to a car dealership to test drive cars is about as pleasant as going to the dentist. Well, leave it to Ford and Alibaba to solve that problem. This car vending machine is now operating in Guangzhou, China. The “Super Test-Drive Center” is an un-staffed, digital vending machine that lets customers test drive any car in stock for free, but there’s a catch. It only works for people with a social credit score of 700 or more. Yes, if you didn’t already know, the Chinese government rates citizens behavior. Think of it as a credit score, but a little more intrusive. Anyway, the vehicle vending machine lets drivers keep the car for 3 days and even buy the car on the spot.

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Greg Nibler
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Greg has worked as a Host, Producer, and Writer in radio and television since the early 2000s, working for such companies as…
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