Facebook is keeping its social media network safe from wrongdoers. It has eliminated several applications that might pose a risk to its users.
The Internal Investigation
On Monday, May 14, Ime Archibong, Facebook's Vice President of Product Partnerships, made a blog post updating users about their app investigation. Archibong revealed that the investigation was conducted in a two-part process.
The first part dealt with a massive review of every single application that had access to the sensitive data before the company changed its policies in 2014. The second part of the investigation focused on contacting the app creators for interviews and potential on-site inspections of their app.
If an app creator refused to participate in the investigation, they would be immediately banned from the social media company.
The Results So Far
Archibong wrote that the social media company has a vast team working on the investigation. The group of company employees and outside experts have looked at countless of apps. So far, the team has found 200 potential apps that have leaked confidential data.
The Facebook official also revealed that if the apps misuse the data, the developers would be banned as well. The social media company would also notify users if their data was compromised.
Cambridge Analytica Shuts Down
The app investigation update follows days after Cambridge Analytica folded. On May 2, Cambridge Analytica along with parent company SCL Elections released a joint statement that it would shut down its operations. The report noted that the media coverage of the scandal drove away all the companies' customers and suppliers.
Facebook Under Fire
CNBC reported that Facebook came under fire after news revealed that Cambridge Analytica improperly accessed the social media company's data files during the 2016 Presidential Campaign. Cambridge Analytics allegedly attained the information through building a personality test.
Their actions affected 87 million users. Reports added that Facebook knew that this occurred but did not inform their users.
Zuckerberg Goes To Washington
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke with U.S. Congressional leaders last month. On April 11, Zuckerberg revealed to the Congress that Cambridge Analytica stole his data. He also spoke with 44 senators and stated that Facebook did not do enough to prevent their users' data from falling into the wrong hands. He added that the social media company had to improve identifying fake news and hate speech.
Zuckerberg also defended his colleague, Sheryl Sandberg's comments on paying Facebook for privacy. He believes that Facebook has the right to charge users for the company not to use their data. Zuckerberg stated that while Facebook does not offer a pay service at the moment, there would always be a free version of the social media app.
Tech Times reached out to Facebook for a comment on this story.
