[Update: Facebook confirmed to TechCrunch that it plans to bring the an ‘unsend’ message feature to all users in the coming months.]

At a time when Facebook is under fire for failing to protect user data, it is ironically facing a $33M fine for refusing to allow police access to WhatsApp messages between suspected fraudsters …

Reuters reports that the fine has been levied in Brazil.

Facebook said that it handed over the data required by law. The report doesn’t include specifics, but as WhatsApp messages are end-to-end encrypted, the company wouldn’t be in a position to hand over the content of any exchanges. In most such cases, what the authorities want is metadata showing who was in contact with whom, though all too many governments don’t seem to understand what end-to-end encryption means …

Zuckerberg PMs deleted

On the subject of private messages, Facebook has deleted a number of PMs sent by CEO Mark Zuckerberg from the inboxes of their recipients. This is something that ordinary Facebook users can’t do – once a message is sent, it remains available to the recipient even if you delete the conversation at your end.

TechCrunch was able to confirm multiple reports of this happening. The company said that this was for corporate security reasons.

The site says that this may have been done to prevent the leak of sensitive corporate info, but might also have been an attempt to ‘thwart the publication of potentially embarrassing personal messages sent by Zuckerberg or other executives.’

Some unable to delete accounts

While Zuckerberg said recently that the #DeleteFacebook campaign hadn’t had ‘any meaningful impact,’ some users who did attempt to delete their accounts are reporting that they have been unable to do so. The WSJ reports multiple people hitting the same brick wall.

Some of those affected found that changing their password then trying again fixed it.

Facebook stops asking hospitals to share patient data

Finally, and unsurprisingly, Facebook has reportedly paused an initiative in which a number of hospitals were asked to share patient data with the social network.

Although the data would have been anonymized, and the project appears to have been designed to help patients and hospitals alike, it’s obviously not a great time for the company to be requesting access to sensitive data. CNBC reports that the project has now been put on hold.

Facebook said that its current focus was on ‘doing a better job of protecting people’s data.’

Photo: Thomas White/Reuters