Facebook is suspending 200 apps that may have leaked private data on large groups of users without their consent, as it looks for potential breaches similar to the one involving Cambridge Analytica.
Since it was discovered earlier this year that personal information from as many as 87m Facebook users was improperly shared with political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, Facebook has begun looking back over thousands of apps that had similar access before the platform’s policies changed in 2014.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised an examination of all its apps on 21 March. As it goes through them, when concerns are flagged the company will conduct interviews and request more information about the details the app has access to and possibly perform on-site inspections of those app providers. The disclosure on Monday in a blog post indicates the widespread impact of Facebook’s data sharing with developers.
The 200 apps are suspended pending an investigation into whether they did in fact misuse data. If evidence proves that they did, the apps will be banned from Facebook and people who used them will be notified, similar to the steps Facebook took in contacting people to let them know if their data was transferred to Cambridge Analytica.
The update shows that the consequences from the scandal are far from over even as Facebook’s stock price has recovered to pre-scandal levels. The shares were little changed Monday at $186.92. — Reported by Polina Noskova, with assistance from Sarah Frier, (c) 2018 Bloomberg LP
