Facebook suspends 200 apps in large-scale investigation into misuse of user data
Social network suspends tons of apps pending 'thorough investigation' into if they misused data following the Cambridge Analytica scandal
Facebook has suspended 200 apps in the first stage of its review into the shady applications that had unauthorised access to vast amounts of user data.
The move comes in response to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which came to light earlier this year and revealed how the London-based consultancy company had inappropriately gained access to data from 50 million Facebook users in the US.
The incident sparked widespread privacy concerns among users, and it was even claimed that the data was used to help get Donald Trump elected.
Facebook's vice president of product partnerships, Ime Archibong, today that the shady apps were suspended pending a "thorough investigation" into whether they misused any data.
"The investigation process is in full swing, and it has two phases. First, a comprehensive review to identify every app that had access to this amount of Facebook data," said Archibong.
"Second, where we have concerns, we will conduct interviews, make requests for information (RFI) — which ask a series of detailed questions about the app and the data it has access to, and perform audits that may include on-site inspections."
The sweeping removals come after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg that his firm would conduct an audit into all the apps that had access to large amounts of user info on the platform before it changed its platform policies in 2014 — significantly reducing the data apps could access.
He also made clear at the time that where the tech giant had concerns about individual apps, it would audit them — and any app that either refused or failed an audit would be banned from Facebook completely.
Archibong said the company has large teams of internal and external experts working hard to investigate the apps as quickly as possible.
"To date thousands of apps have been investigated and around 200 have been suspended, pending a thorough investigation into whether they did in fact misuse any data," he added.
"Where we find evidence that these or other apps did misuse data, we will ban them and notify people via . It will show people if they or their friends installed an app that misused data before 2015, just as we did for ."
However, this is just the beginning of the ordeal for Facebook. The social media giant said there is a lot more work to be done to find all the apps that may have misused users' data, adding that it will "take time".
"We are investing heavily to make sure this investigation is as thorough and timely as possible," concluded Archibong.
The alleged Facebook data breach came to light earlier this year thanks to Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie.
He said: "We exploited Facebook to harvest millions of people's profiles".
Facebook later admitted that the 87 million users whose data might have been shared with the political firm would get a message on their feeds.
It said most of the affected users are in the US, though 1.1. million are believed to be Brits.
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