The company has managed to keep its lips sealed on the topic related to third-party app audits that the CEO said would be done in 2018. See, he wished to buy more time as bad reputations of the firm misusing data related to the privacy crisis of Cambridge Analytica went viral.
Now, more details are emerging on the matter that really turned into a major controversy. The news comes after the revelations came forward from a series of unsealed documents. These were put forward by plaintiffs in the lawsuit accusing the firm of privacy issues. Moreover, it provides a very thorough glimpse of what went on, or shall we say, what the Meta-owned app’s audit team found when it went through the third-party applications.
There is much talk about the app’s privacy-free area and how Facebook really helped make the most of the data of users belonging to millions. Shockingly, the majority had no idea what was going on and that they were forced to embark upon the app’s experiment.
Two known firms are being outlined as being audited by Facebook. They include game-making giant Zynga and media tech firm Yahoo. And both of these companies gave rise to apps on the platform, and they have incredible amounts of access to the data of millions. And it’s interesting to note how a lot of the information was very sensitive.
Facebook is accused of using the Facebook friends permissions route for data access, a similar means by which it scrapped information from millions via Cambridge Analytica. And nobody knew at that time.
One of the ADI files even mentions that out of the massive 500 different apps produced by Zynga, most had access to details like images, videos, events, groups, relationship status, and so much more. And then, another file goes on to speak about how so much more personal information was made public and shared with advertisers by sharing social network IDs.
One ADI memo related to Yahoo mentioned that it affected around 123 million users across the board and took information sensitive to users and their friends that they could easily detect.
Then there is much talk about a developer who goes by the name AppBank. It was responsible for making quizzes and apps for the purpose of virtual gifting. And just like, the list went on, many called it a never-ending affair.
Plaintiffs of the case argued that the app was slapped with sanctions, and now, they’re busy trying to figure out just how many millions of users’ data was utilized and how they were exposed by the simple ‘friends permissions’ route.
So as you can see, Facebook is really stuck in a sticky mess at the moment. For now, investigations are continuing, and plaintiffs are checking to see if the platform has given all the details they had initially requested.
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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World
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