Can Facebook users and app makers get past the muck?
Quiz developer welcomes company’s stricter controls on collecting data
In the wake of the uproar over Cambridge Analytica, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday vowed tougher rules for outside developers who create quizzes, games and other fun, seemingly innocuous apps for the social network’s users.
At least one developer welcomes the changes, which include limiting the amount of user information apps can collect to only the user’s name, profile photo and email address.
“When the news broke that a quiz website had passed harvested user data to a third party, it negatively impacted the trust that people have in apps in general,” Wayne Witty told this publication Wednesday. The Ireland-based developer of Lol Sided offers up quizzes such as “What is your rap name?” and “What review did your ex leave about you?”
“If these changes help to allay people’s fears that apps are mis-using personally identifiable in--
formation, then I am all for them,” Witty said.
U. K.- based Cambridge Analytica, a data consulting firm used by President Trump’s campaign, accessed personal data of 50 million Facebook users without their permission, the New York Times and the Guardian reported over the weekend. The information came from a Cambridge University researcher, Aleksandr Kogan, who developed a personality-quiz app initially for academic purposes. He said he updated the app’s terms of service to disclose he would be selling the data, which Facebook called a “breach of trust.”
While Kogan’s app had only about 270,000 users, Facebook at the time allowed developers to collect data from their users’ friends, too, even those who hadn’t authorized the app to collect their information. The company said this week that it stopped that practice in 2014.
After finding out from journalists that Cambridge Analyticamay have retained the data, Facebook last Friday suspended the accounts of Cambridge Analytica and a former employee of the firm, as well as Kogan’s.
The former Cambridge Analytica employee, Chris Wylie, has said the firm sought to “explore mental vulnerabilities of people” by “creating a web of disinformation online.”
The fallout has hit Facebook hard, with its market capitalization dropping about $60 billion over a couple of days earlier this week. It is also facing calls for more information from lawmakers and officials on both sides of the Atlantic, and is reportedly being investigated by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over a possible violation of terms in a 2011 privacy settlement. In addition, advertisers are making noise, including Mozilla, which said Wednesday it has “pressed pause” on Facebook advertising over privacy concerns.
Also this week, a Maryland-based Facebook user sued the social networking giant and Cambridge Analytica in U.S. District Court in San Jose, and is seeking class-action status over the companies’ “absolute disregard with which defendants have chosen to treat plaintiff’s personal information.”
Among Lauren Price’s allegations: “Facebook had known about this security breach for two years, but did little or nothing to protect its users.”
And what about the app makers who make a living off the world’s largest social network? Will users — some of whom are seeing a deluge of #deleteFacebook and articles on how to do so — continue to trust them and Facebook to keep their data safe?
Witty said LolSided uses cookies but does not collect personally identifiable information nor store data. The LolSided page has 53,000 likes on Facebook. It is completely ad- supported and has about 7 million users a month, he said.
“Although I can not speak for other quiz websites, I can honestly say that my only motive is to run a successful website and carve out a living for myself,” Witty said.