Thread by @jason_kint

Whoa. A super late Fri night unsealed doc in lawsuit Facebook is trying to settle for record $700+ million. It includes this long-hidden Sep '18 "Status and Re-scoped Approach" from the unprecedented audit Mark Zuckerberg promised Congress during Cambridge Analytica scandal. /1

Pop some corn or make some coffee if you're awake. The Judge in the case ordered some items unsealed by midnight Friday night. Again, they're trying to settle but Facebook's law firm is also going through sanctions for discovery abuse so Court is ordering stuff unsealed. /2

Reminder, here is what Zuckerberg promised Congress. They have attempted to keep even the names of the two consultants sealed for years but failed because they promised the public they would do the audit to keep us safe. Not just for legal reasons. /3

This was the timeline. It looks like the project was kicked off in May at the "Project Analytica Summit." A catchy name I suppose. Reminder, this was basically to investigate the extent that their entire app platform was leaking data as they hacked for growth. /4

These were the apps that appear to have been immediately escalated as high-priority. Gibson Dunn being the lawyers, FTI and Stroz the secret forensic consultants. Any apps that stand out, let me know. Definitely AIQ and Mail.ru. /5

Get this. Over 2 million apps fit the P0 priority list meaning they were created before 2015 and had access to sensitive user and friends' permissions. So again, that seems like a lot to me but what do I know. It's a big platform. /6

Let's get to where things start to get even more interesting. High-risk countries for all of that accessible personal data across the Facebook platform. Russian developers in Iran? China? Russia? Yes, TikTok 2023 seems super, super benign compared to this. /7

WTF. "Developers by Predicted Country." Again, this is from audit to see if Facebook had other Cambridge Analyticas - apps harvesting our personal data. /8

*China 86,961
Cuba 250
*Iran 2,533
**North Korea 21
*Russia 42,078
Sudan 647
*Syria 929
Ukraine 34,624
Vietnam 76,813

Again, reminder. The Sept 17, 2018 presentation is titled: "Status and Rescoped Approach." Why? Well sure enough slide 16 says, "Now is an opportunity to reflect and consider alternative approaches to better risk-calibrate the investigation." /9

They appeared to have been super early in the app investigation and already had a timeline to move it in-house, re-calibrate how deep they would really go. At that time, Zuckerberg and Sandberg were refusing summons from international parliaments. SEC was likely a major risk. /10

And a key enforcer, @ICOnews investigation was soon shut down informing public FB never even followed up on Cambridge Analytica servers afterward which Zuckerberg had told Congress was a priority. And then $5B+ of settlements shut down the FTC and SEC. /11

I'm going to link to full doc / report here so you can see everything. There were some other documents unsealed tonight, too. Likely more to come. Again, they chose to settle this private suit within weeks of Zuckerberg and Sandberg depositions. /12 storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…

Here is a link to prior threads if you want to dig around a bit on it. Again, they spent years avoiding depositions and discovery before settling as discovery was underway for Zuckerberg and Sandberg and depositions imminent. Surprise! /13

And a bit more on the actual settlement including the final tweet of @SenatorMenendez rightly questioning the testimony of Zuckerberg. Facebook rushed him to town before they started the app audit, etc. Better to testify before everyone knew too much. /14

Before I close, I normally say anything in yellow is my highlighting as I go through documents. Thanks for digging in. I'll see if anyone else comes up with more intel in the morning. Thanks again for Facebook for having its news buried on a Friday night. We appreciate it. /15

Here is a thread connecting the risk of the same data being harvested in Russia as Zuckerberg minimized to Senate. It’s highly likely no one in the US enforcement ever saw this doc as FB claimed privilege, they never litigated and instead settled for over $5 billion. /16

And consistent with my last tweet, UK Parliament was even further ahead pressing for answers. But UK, Canada and other international enforcement def wouldn’t have seen this doc if US didn’t. @DamianCollins led UK inquiry. He didn’t see it or the audit. /17