Facebook its Data was Wrongly Shared to 5 6j2xd 000 Developers, Violating Its Own Policy

Facebook introduced and 90 day lockout system back in 2018 to prevent third part apps from getting information after 90 days of inactivity. 3y40

By Vineet Washington | Updated: 3 July 2020 14:42 IST

Facebook its Data was Wrongly Shared to 5,000 Developers, Violating Its Own Policy

Photo Credit: Reuters 3v6d2p

Facebook information can be used to sign in to third part apps

Highlights

Facebook its to wrongly sharing data
It states that data was wrongly shared to 5,000 developers
Facebook has stated that the issue that caused this has been fixed

ment

Facebook has itted that an “issue” with the system caused it to share data with 5,000 developers after 90 days of inactivity. In 2018, Facebook announced that it would automatically prevent apps using Facebook from getting data if the has not used the particular app in the last 90 days. However, as per the post on Facebook's news page, around 5,000 developers continued to receive information even though the s had been inactive for 90 days. The social networking giant states that it discovered this issue recently and had fixed it the next day. Facebook did not say how many s were affected by this lapse.

Like Sign in With Google , Facebook allowed app developers to get s to sign up without having to create a fresh — and it also gave developers access to some data from Facebook. Since this affects third party apps, it's not clear what data precisely was being accessed, or how many s were affected by this.

In a Facebook, wrote that “in some instances apps continued to receive the data that people had previously authorised, even if it appeared they hadn't used the app in the last 90 days.” This 90 day lockout rule was introduced in 2018 as a means to protect privacy and data when s use Facebook to sign in to other apps. Papamiltiadis stated that Facebook estimates approximately 5,000 developers continued to receive information like language settings or gender after 90 days of inactivity.

“We haven't seen evidence that this issue resulted in sharing information that was inconsistent with the permissions people gave when they logged in using Facebook,” Papamiltiadis added, and said that the issue was fixed the day after it was found and that the social media giant will continue to investigate and “prioritise transparency around any major updates.”

Facebook did not clarify what all information and data was accessed by the developers but it did give an example of a case where this issue could have caused unauthorised sharing of data. It stated that “this could happen if someone used a fitness app to invite their friends from their hometown to a workout, but we (Facebook) didn't recognize that some of their friends had been inactive for many months.”

Papamiltiadis said that new Platform and Developer Policies have been introduced that “limit the information developers can share with third parties without explicit consent from people.”

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