Facebook recently announced that it would conduct an investigation into appsthat had access to large amounts of user data. As part of this investigation, it announced yesterday that it had suspended thousands of apps from about 400 developers.
A Facebook spokesperson said these apps did not necessarily pose a risk to user data.
“Many of these apps weren’t yet live, but were in their testing phase when we suspended them. It’s not uncommon for developers to have test apps that never go live. In many cases, developers didn’t respond to our request for information, so we suspended them,” he said .
Facebook said there were some cases where the apps seemed too suspicious, so the social networking platform decided to ban them completely rather than simply suspend them like the others.
There were many reasons why these apps were banned. Some gave data they got from Facebook to third parties. Others made the data public without taking care to protect the identity of the users. In short, apps that violated Facebook's policies were banned.
One of the apps he banned was one called myPersonality.
According to Facebook, myPersonality shared user data with researchers and companies. When Facebook asked for permission to conduct an audit, the app's administrators refused. The social networking platform considered this behavior suspicious and decided to ban the app.
Facebook stated that in cases of certain abuse, it informed users.
In addition, it against companies that committed fraud ad filed lawsuits against companies that refused to participate in the audit (e.g. RankWave of South Korea) but also (LionMobi and JediMobi) and stole user data through quiz apps (Gleb Sluchevsky and Andrey Gorbachov).
Facebook representatives say their efforts to protect their users after the Cambridge Analytica scandal are starting to bear fruit.
Initially, the platform's security experts tried to control applications that had access to a large amount of data. However, they later evolved their methods and were able to identify applications that misused data and others that were involved in various scams.
Facebook's agreement with the FTC stipulates that app developers must comply with Facebook's policies. Those who fail to comply will face consequences.
