Facebook Suspends Apps in Data Abuse Audit

Facebook says it has suspended around 200 potentially 'suspicious' apps that may have misused people's data, following an audit prompted by it relationship with UK-based data firm Cambridge Analytica.

Cambridge Analytica has been accused of illegally collecting Facebook profiles which could be matched to electoral rolls. The problems centre around data provided by users of a personality quiz app, thisisyourdigitallife, created by Global Science Research and downloaded by around 270,000 people. Where users' privacy settings allowed, the app was reportedly able to gather data about their Facebook contacts, gleaning information on a total of tens of millions of individuals which was then available to Cambridge Analytica for political message targeting.

As a result of the publicity surrounding Facebook's relationship with Cambridge Analytica, Facebook has undergone an app audit and decided to suspend around 200 apps, pending what it calls a 'thorough investigation' into whether or not their developers misused Facebook user data. Facebook previously gave third-party apps access to the personal data of those who used the apps, but shut down this practice in 2014.

Ime Archibong (pictured), Facebook's Head of Product Partnerships, comments: 'We have large teams of internal and external experts working hard to investigate these 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'.

Web site: www.facebook.com .