Did you know that Facebook discussed selling your data in 2012?

San Francisco: Facebook employees in 2012 discussed selling access to user information to major advertisers but decided against the option two years later, according to a report by Ars Technica. The social media giant considered charging companies at least $250,000 for access to one of its primary troves of user data, the Graph API.  "A failure to adequately redact a public court document from February 2017 shows that, back in 2012, Facebook considered charging companies at least $250,000 for access to one of its primary troves of user data, the Graph API," the report says.

"In April 2014, Facebook changed the way the previously permissive Graph API works. The social media giant restricted some data access and eliminated all access to the earlier version by June 2015."

"Facebook gave extended access to the v1.0 of Graph API to numerous companies not only including Nissan and Royal Bank of Canada but now also to Chrysler/Fiat, Lyft, Airbnb, and Netflix, among others," ARS Technica said in their report released in November.

The Wall Street Journal in 2015 reported that the company has allowed some advertisers to spend more in return for user data.

Last month, the British parliament obtained a set of internal Facebook documents from Six4Three, an American software company, showing Facebook staff discussing whether to sell user data access for 'revenue, valuable trademarks or simple cash payments.'.

Facebook refuted the claims, saying, that Six4Three has no merit. The non-operational Six4Three alleged that the social media giant accumulated data on users and their friends through its apps, in a new filing to a California lawsuit in May 2018.