Almost a
year after the Cambridge Analytica Scandal, last March, wherein the data of
around 87 million users' was gathered and imparted to the Trump-affiliated
campaign research firm without their assent Facebook is taking action against
certain third-party applications that gulp up enormous amounts of user data in
the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Facebook
said in a blog post that it will never again permit applications with 'minimal
utility,' like personality quizzes, to operate on the platform.
Eddie
O'Neil, head of platform at Facebook, said in the post, 'As part of our ongoing
commitments to privacy and security, we are making updates to our platform...our
Facebook Platform Policies are being updated to include provisions that apps
with minimal utility, such as personality quizzes, may not be permitted on the
platform.
'The update
also clarifies that apps may not ask for data that doesn't enrich the in-app,
user experience,' he added later.
Be that as
it may, as The Verge called attention to the fact that the issue didn't exactly
originate from quiz applications, but instead Facebook's lax policies around
user data management and how developers had the capacity to collect data from
"friends of friends".
It comes as
Facebook on Wednesday revealed that it hopes to take on a one-time charge
between $3 billion and $5 billion identified with a settlement with the Federal
Trade Commission. As last March, the FTC opened an investigation concerning
Facebook's data dealings after the Cambridge Analytica scandal first came into
light.
While
O'Neill stated, 'Going forward, we will periodically review, audit and remove
permissions that your app has not sued, developers can submit for App Review to
re-gain access to expired permissions.'
What's
more, presently, Facebook expects to keep developer from getting to user
information on the off chance that it identifies that a user hasn't opened the
app in the previous 90 days.
