While Facebook has set a limit of 90 days for sharing user data when an application is not used, more than 5,000 Facebook-related developers continued to retrieve data, such as email, birthday, etc. This time, it is promised, Facebook has corrected the problem.
We thought Facebook was done with the leak of personal data to third-party publishers, and we were wrong! In an article posted on its official website , the social network lists the measures taken since 2014 to better control the security of its personal data, and more particularly those shared with applications linked to Facebook, such as games, a calendar or an application for fitness .
Since 2018, Facebook has thus implemented a system that blocks any sharing of data if a person does not use an application for 90 days. Except that the social network has noticed in recent months that applications continue to receive the data that people had previously authorized, even when the 90-day period was exceeded.
5,000 developers involved
Email, date of birth, location, friend list …, the data retrieved by these applications are many and varied, and Facebook explains that the problem concerned more than 5,000 developers! It’s obviously huge and it could therefore affect millions of Facebook subscribers. Even if the social network “turns off the tap” and ensures that the leak is repaired, the fact remains that these data have been collected, and can be used afterwards .
In the future, application developers for Facebook will undertake that the data shared by users will not be exploited, stored or shared with another publisher. What is worrying, or rather frustrating, is that we thought this had already been the case for years, and as of December 2018 , Facebook promised to lock out the use of personal data. In vain…