Facebook as a follow up to its revised app data retention policy is reviewing “thousands” of apps on its platform, with “thorough investigation” into whether or not the developers misuse its data policy.
The investigation is part of third party applications audit on the platform, which according to Mark Zuckerberg, the company would “investigate apps with access to large amounts of information before the changes on the platform to dramatically reduce data access in 2014, and as well as conduct a full audit of any app with suspicious activity.
It is coming on the heels of the Cambridge Analytica data misuse scandal, with Apps that would not agree to a “thorough audit” subject to outright ban. Now, the tally is around 200 suspicious apps already suspended, albeit Facebook is not specific about the total number of apps it has examined at the moment.
According to Facebook, the investigation process is in full swing, with two phases: the comprehensive review to identify every app that had access to this amount of Facebook data and conduction of interviews, to make requests for information (RFI) — which ask a series of detailed questions about the app and the data it has access to — and perform audits that may include on-site inspections.
The likelihood of large scale data misuse by developers on the platform lends credence that there is a possibility that Facebook will make public the list of all the suspended apps.
Facebook, however will not be doing just on site inspections in every suspicious app instance, but assures that it is investing heavily to make sure this investigation is as thorough and timely as possible.
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