Facebook probes if firm violated policies

Facebook has suspended a Boston analytics firm from its site and says it is investigating whether the company’s contracts with the US government and a Russian non-profit violated policies, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The firm, Crimson Hexagon, says its platform allows clients — which include major US corporations — to analyse audiences and to track brand perception and campaign performance.

Citing people familiar with the business, the Journal said the government contracts of Crimson Hexagon, which pulls public data from Facebook, were not approved by Facebook in advance.

Since 2014, US government agencies have paid Crimson Hexagon more than $800,000 for 22 contracts, the Journal said, citing government procurement data.

Crimson Hexagon has sold its proprietary analytics platform abroad, including to Turkey and Russia, where in 2014 it worked with a non-profit tied to the government, the Journal reported.

It said Crimson Hexagon appears at least once to have mistakenly received private data from Facebook’s Instagram service.

Chris Bingham, a Crimson Hexagon executive, wrote in a Friday blog post that his firm only collects publicly available social media data, an act which is “completely legal”.

Bingham said his firm routinely vets potential government customers to ensure they comply with policies of its “data partners” like Facebook. AFP