Facebook Updates on App Privacy Investigation, Bans myPersonality

Facebook has now suspended more than 400 apps during its privacy investigation following Cambridge Analytica and investigated thousands of other apps since March, including the announcement of its second app ban.

The latest app to be banned is myPersonality, which was announced yesterday. It received information from approximately 4 million people and refused to agree to Facebook’s audit request. The only other app to be banned as part of the Facebook investigation is Cambridge Analytica.

At the last update in May, Facebook had suspended around 200 apps – half the number that it announced yesterday (approximately three months later). Apps can be suspended or reinstated without a public announcement. In May, a Facebook spokeswoman told TechCrunch that details on bans would be provided by Facebook after a case-by-case investigation.

myPersonality

Facebook is now notifying the people that shared their information with myPersonality that it may have been used inappropriately. myPersonality was active between 2007 and 2012 and the blog post from Facebook indicates that “it’s clear” there was information sharing with researchers and companies. A roughly complete set of the data from the project was posted earlier this year to GitHub. Facebook is not yet notifying the friends of these users as Facebook says “we currently have no evidence that myPersonality accessed any friends’ information ….”

However, TechCrunch presented a very different picture, wondering why they bothered to ban an app that appeared to be legitimate and hadn’t been active since 2012. A statement to TechCrunch by those involved with the app paints a very different picture. The Techcrunch article says that Facebook certified it as a verified application in 2009, invited the organizer to a workshop in 2011 because it wanted more academics to gather and use data, and invited them to present to research to Facebook in 2015. The data has been use in over a hundred social science research papers by dozens of universities.

A New York Times article published in May discussed how these sort of data sets were widely available among the academic community. An organizer of the myPersonality app was interviewed as part of that article.

Third-Party Data Sharing

Data sharing like this has been a major focus of the privacy discussion this year as a result of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Since the scandal, Vermont has passed a new privacy law requiring registration of data brokers, and California adopted the nation’s most sweeping data privacy legislation with the California Consumer Privacy Act (set to go into effect on January 1, 2020). A major component of the CCPA is the ability for consumers to opt out of the sale of their personal information and to find out the categories of companies that have received it through such data sharing.

The problem is not confined to academics, the area that has emerged from the Facebook privacy investigation. Companies also need to have a better handle on what third-parties have access to their information, and what they are doing with this information. Automated data mapping has been a popular way for companies to get organized, and more will be doing so as a result of the disclosure requirements of the California Consumer Privacy Act and the GDPR data processing agreement requirement. If your organization needs data mapping software to help identify all of your third-party vendors, please call Clarip at 1-888-252-5653.

Other Blog Posts on Facebook:

Three Steps to Prepare for a Record Privacy Fine Against Facebook
Vendor Risk Management Lessons Coming From Facebook
Facebook, FTC Hearings Top Privacy News Yesterday
Vendor Risk Management at Facebook Back in Headlines
Warning from Facebook Stock Drop: Take Privacy Seriously!
SEC Investigates Facebook for Non-Disclosure of Cambridge Analytica Risks
UK Privacy Office to Issue Maximum Fine for Facebook Over Cambridge Analytica
Senate Consumer Protection Subcommittee Further Explores Facebook Data Privacy
Facebook Answers Senate Questions on Privacy
Privacy Bills in Congress Get Boost From Facebook’s Latest Data Scandal
Germany Demands More From Facebook on GDPR
Overview of the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica Data Privacy Scandal

Improve Data Privacy for GDPR or CCPA with Clarip

The Clarip team and enterprise privacy management software are ready to meet your compliance automation challenges. Click here to contact us (return messages within 24 hours) or call 1-888-252-5653 to schedule a demo or speak to a member of the Clarip team.

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Click here to contact us (return messages within 24 hours) or call 1-888-252-5653 to schedule a demo and speak to a member of the Clarip team.