It appears that yet another quiz app may have leaked the personal data of millions of Facebook.
A personality quiz app created by researchers exposed the personal data of more than 3 million Facebook users, according to a report published in New Scientist.
The app, called “myPersonality,” was created by researchers at the University of Cambridge. It was used by more than 6 million people, some of whom even chose to share their Facebook profile data with the researchers.
This profile data, along with the quiz results, was made available to a select group of analysts both inside and outside Cambridge.
But while this data was supposed to be restricted to approved groups, as it was collected for research purposes, lax security measures reportedly left the data vulnerable to anyone. The login credentials for the website where this data was stored were readily available on GitHub for four years, according to New Scientist.
Facebook has since removed the myPersonality app as part of a broader effort to eliminate apps that violate its privacy policies. But the incident is another black page for the social network, which has been criticized for not doing enough to protect its users' data.
The incident also bears striking similarities to that of Cambridge Analytica, in which more than 50 million Facebook users' data was harvested and sold without their knowledge. In this case, the data was also gathered through a personality quiz created by a University of Cambridge professor.
New Scientist also reports that Cambridge Analytica tried to access myPersonality data but was denied.
In addition to suspending the app, Facebook is investigating the incident and could take further action.
A spokesperson for the social network said Monday that Facebook is working on adding tools to notify users whose data has been compromised by third-party apps, as in the Cambridge Analytica case.
