Facebook Announces Another Data Leak; It’s Group Members’ Data This Time

If you are a member of any group on the social media website Facebook, your personal data might have been improperly accessed by some 100 app developers.

Today, Facebook announced another data breach and said that as many as 100 third-party app developers might have accessed and retained user information including users’ names and profile pictures in an illegal manner.

In April 2018, Facebook changed its Groups API that allowed third-party app developers to access information in the group.

Now, the company has announced that despite the changes, some 100 app developers were able to snoop on the group members’ data since April 2018. In the last 60 days, according to Facebook, 11 app developers accessed the data illegally.

In the blog post, Facebook mentions that it does not have proof that the data accessed by these 100 app developers was abused.

Facebook has reached out to those developers and has asked them to delete any user data that they have retained post the changes in its Groups API. The company also says that it will conduct audits to ensure that the data has been deleted.

Facebook hasn’t disclosed the names of these 100 app developers but says that these were “primarily social media management and video streaming apps.”

We also do not know the extent of data leak in this data breach. Facebook hasn’t disclosed the number of users impacted by it.

It is about time that Facebook takes some concrete steps to safeguard user data. A series of leaks including the infamous Cambridge Analytica scandal has tarnished its image amongst users beyond repair and such leaks will further degrade its reputation.

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