Discussion: Facebook Suspends About 200 Apps That Possibly Misused Data

It will be interesting to see how Facebook actually defines “misuse” of data, given that they set up their platform specifically with APIs that empowered app-makers to collect profile data, contact lists, Friend and Like data, et cetera and to take photos, send all this data to their servers, and sell it to marketers and aggregators, even when obviously not needed for the stated functionality, such as flashlight apps.

Cambridge Analytica and the professor whose ThisIsYourDigitalLife quiz served as CA’s source certainly were not the only ones who did this and bypassed FB’s few “don’t do what we empower you to do” policy bits.

This could turn out to be a shakedown, like the ad-blockers that allow tracking ads only from companies that pay the blocker-makers for a spot on their whitelist.

Well, to be fair, you really oughtn’t put the cart before the horse after it’s escaped the barn.