In the midst of an app audit that will probably never end , Facebook gave us an update on its forward motion on Wednesday . While the caller is still being meagerly with information , it said 4 million users should gestate a notification that a now - banned app called myPersonality may have misused their data . to boot , Facebook says 400 other apps are presently freeze over suspect activeness .
Inits updateon the app audit , Facebook suppose that it has decided to ban myPersonality , a personality quiz app , “ for failing to hold to our request to audit and because it ’s decipherable that they partake in selective information with researchers as well as company with only limited auspices in place . ” In May , Facebooksuspended the app , which had n’t been active since 2012 , but now it ’s stagnant and buried . MyPersonalityoriginatedat the University of Cambridge ’s psychometrics department , which pioneered the novelty app that makes surmisal about your personality based on your likes , posts , and other Facebook information . Aleksandr Kogan was a reader at Cambridge at the time that myPersonality was carry , and went on to build the personality app that sold Facebook user information to Cambridge Analytica .
While Facebook is touting its progress , its hard not to feel like things are move at an improbably slow yard . The myPersonality app was suspended calendar month ago , and Gizmodoreported on itback in March . On Wednesday , Facebook also aver that it presently has 400 apps that are under revue and are they are temporarily suspended . That double the routine of debar apps that it announcedin May . It has not released a list of the apps that are under hiatus .
We make out to Facebook to enquire if it has plans to release the lean of apps , as well as to corroborate the number of apps that have officially been censor , but did not welcome an prompt answer . At the moment it appears the only apps to be ban as a direct consequence of Facebook ’s investigation are myPersonality and This Is Your Digital Life . It ’s understandable that Facebook would n’t want to drag out innocent developers name through the mud until they ’ve to the full investigated . Previously , it releaseda toolthat allow users to chink if an app may have misused their information . Checking the tool today , it come along it ’s still only scanning to see if a substance abuser ever used This Is Your Digital Life . We ’ve ask Facebook if this putz comprehend all offending apps at this spot .
While Facebook says that “ roughly 4 million people ” will be give notice that they were cod into using a shady app , it admit that figure could mature . For now , it arrogate to “ have no evidence that myPersonality accessed any friends ’ information . ” Apps ’ access to the data of friends of users who employ an app is what gave This Is Your Digital Life the power to nurse up so much information . And in that case , an estimated270,000 downloads eventuallyaffectedup to 87 million exploiter .
On the same day that Facebook herald it was ostracise a bad app from its platform , Apple killed a speculative app owned by Facebook that was available in its App Store . The Onavo app bluster itself as a VPN but , in realism , it wasmore likespyware stand for to gather even more personal data for Facebook . harmonise to theWall Street Journal , Apple concluded Onavo spoil its data point - compendium policy and Facebook elected to remove it from the App Store .
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