Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said the social network will pivot to privacy.
Topline: Facebook on Friday said it suspended tens of thousands of third-party apps—more than it had previously reported—as part of its ongoing investigation after the Cambridge Analytica scandal into what data about its users outside developers can collect from the platform.
- The suspended apps, which can collect data when users log in with their Facebook username and password, are associated with 400 developers.
- Facebook said the apps were suspended for a variety of reasons and doesn’t mean they were all posing a threat to users. Many were suspended because developers didn’t respond to Facebook’s request to hand over information on how they collect user data.
- Many of the suspended apps weren’t live but were test apps that may have never been rolled out. It is common for developers to have several test apps.
- Facebook has previously announced it banned apps entirely for privacy violations, including one called myPersonality that shared information with researchers and companies.
Key background: Facebook has been auditing outside developers following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, when Facebook admitted—on the eve of an investigative report published by the New York Times and the U.K. Observer—that it knew Cambridge University researcher Aleksandr Kogan had collected user data from those who took a personality quiz and had given that data to political-ad-targeting firm Cambridge Analytica, without the users’ consent.
What’s next: Facebook said the investigation into third-party developers is ongoing, and more suspensions may be announced in the future. Under a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, Facebook must annually certify developers to make sure they are in compliance with the company’s policies.
Caveat: While the investigation into how much data third-party developers can collect from Facebook (and who they share that data with) addresses the crux of the criticism surrounding the Cambridge Analytica incident, it doesn’t address how much data Facebook itself collects from third-party websites and its users.
Recently though, Facebook introduced a tool that may limit how much Facebook knows about users—in response to another common complaint about the social network and privacy.
