UPDATED 00:41 EDT / MAY 15 2018

APPS

Facebook suspends 200 apps as data privacy investigation continues

Facebook Inc. has suspended about 200 apps over data privacy concerns as part of the post-Cambridge Analytica scandal investigation announced by Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg March 21.

The 200 unnamed apps, part of thousands so far investigated, have been suspended “pending a thorough investigation into whether they did in fact misuse any data,” Facebook said in a statement Monday. “Where we find evidence that these or other apps did misuse data, we will ban them and notify people.”

The ongoing audit is considering two facets of apps that hooked into Facebook’s data stream. The first is to identify every app that has broad access to Facebook data prior to changes in 2014 that restricted access available to newer apps. In the second stage, Facebook is taking on more of a formal investigative role that may include requests for further information, such as what the app does with data obtained, interviews with those behind identified apps and in some cases onsite inspections of the app developers themselves.

Although Facebook doesn’t say it, presumably those onsite inspections would be with the permission of the app developer, with a denied request likely to be followed by a permanent app ban.

Facebook’s investigation and now app suspensions are welcome moves forward in the social networking giant addressing serious privacy concerns raised post-Cambridge Analytica. But it’s still a case of the company reacting to events, some of which pose legal and regulatory risks.

Along with Zuckerberg testifying before Congress, there have been calls on both sides of the Atlantic for new laws to ensure better user privacy. In April, two U.S. senators proposed a bill to protect internet users from their data being accessed in a similar fashion. The U.K. Information Commissioner, who called the scandal “a game changer in data protection,” said she would consider legal changes once the agency’s investigation is concluded.

Facebook is also facing a probe by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission into how the social network handles user data, including whether it has breached any laws and, in the event that it clearly hasn’t, whether existing laws should be changed.

To its credit, Facebook concluded by saying that “there is a lot more work to be done to find all the apps that may have misused people’s Facebook data – and it will take time.” But as interest in the scandal appears to show no sign of waning, the clock for Facebook is ticking.

Image: downloadsourcefr/Flickr

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