Embattled Menlo Park social networking giant Facebook has announced that it’s suspended approximately 200 apps over the course of its Cambridge Analytica investigation.
According to a May 14th, 2018 media release attributed to Ime Archibong, the company’s vice president of product partnerships, Facebook has embarked on a two-phase investigation in order to identify apps that access “large amounts of information” before the company changed its platform policies in 2014.
Archibong added that Facebook will be conducting interviews with and submitting requests for informations to any developers’ whose apps raise concerns.
Facebook said it’s also banning any apps that provide evidence of data misuse.
“We have large teams of internal and external experts working hard to investigate these apps as quickly as possible,” said Archibong, in the same May release. “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.”
It’s important to note that the company isn’t necessarily investigating apps that had access to the quiz app put together by Cambridge University researcher Aleksandr Kogan. Instead, the company is simply investigating apps that have access to large amounts of data.
The company has also built a website that notifies users if their data has been misused. Users can click here to access that website.
“We are investing heavily to make sure this investigation is as thorough and timely as possible, concluded Archibong. “We will keep you updated on our progress.”
According to Facebook, approximately 622,000 Canadians had their data breached as a result of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly apologized for his company’s involvement in the scandal.
Cambridge Analytica announced earlier this month that it will be ceasing its operations around the world.
Regardless, the company is still currently under investigation by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.
Source: Facebook
