Facebook suspended more than 200 apps that may have misused your data

Following the investigation launched by Mark Zuckerberg after the Cambridge Analytica scandal in March, at least 200 apps have been suspended from Facebook amidst a data privacy scandal.

Facebook said it has looked into thousands of apps till date as part of an investigation that Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg announced on March 21. In a lengthy Facebook post, Zuckerberg admitted the social media network had “made mistakes” and needed to “step up” to do more to prevent a situation like the Cambridge Analytica scandal from happening again.

Ime Archibong, vice president of Facebook’s product partnerships said:

“Facebook announced its internal investigation was in “full swing” with teams delving into thousands of apps that are connected to Facebook and Facebook’s investigation has already lead to the suspension of around 200 apps which will be analyzed to see whether they did in fact misuse any data.”

Archibong said the second phase of the investigation involves looking into whether there is evidence that the suspended apps or other apps misused data. If an app has misused the data, it could be banned from Facebook. Once the second phase is complete, Facebook users will be notified via a Facebook website if their personal data was jeopardized. “It will show people if they or their friends installed an app that misused data before 2015, just as we did for Cambridge Analytica,” Archibong said in his statement.

To inspect each app, Facebook’s security teams are using a combination of remote interviews, information requests (RFIs) about what data an app-maker still has stored, and doing on-site inspections. While Archibong admits that “there is a lot more work to be done” to find all potential violators of Facebook’s policies, “we are investing heavily to make sure this investigation is as thorough and timely as possible.”