Facebook suspends apps amid data audit

Facebook has suspended around 200 apps as part of its investigation into misuse of personal data on the social network.

In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg promised an audit of apps that may have accessed “large amounts of data” on the site.

The investigation is ongoing but the site has confirmed hundreds of apps have so far been suspended, pending further analysis of their behaviour.

The audit will identify apps that had access to large amounts of information prior to a 2014 Facebook policy change and then investigate those whose behaviour raises concerns, Facebook said.

Writing in a blog post updating on the investigation, Facebook’s vice president of product partnerships Ime Archibong said: “We have large teams of internal and external experts working hard to investigate these apps as quickly as possible.

“To date, thousands of apps have been investigated and around 200 have been suspended – pending a thorough investigation into whether they did in fact misuse any data.”

Theinvestigationisoneof a series of responses from Facebook following the scandal involving British firm Cambridge Analytica.