Facebook is in trouble again for the same reason it has been in the past. The social media platform has – yet, again – disclosed user data when it clearly shouldn’t have. At least 5,000 developers have received the private information from the giant, which says it was inactive data of users who haven’t logged into Facebook for more than 90 days.
In Soup Again
Technically, Facebook’s policy notes that developers should not be receiving any type of data after an account becomes inactive. However, the accounts that were shared with third parties were all inactive, as they haven’t been used in more than 90 days. This particular policy has been implemented after the social media giant was involved in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, after which the company was forced to tighten its policies. Still, this doesn’t seem to work either, since data has seemingly been disclosed again.
Facebook hadn’t mentioned how long the data has been leaking before the issue was discovered, but it only said that if an active user was Facebook friends with an inactive user via a third-party app, the app could keep receiving data the inactive user had previously accumulated in the account. According to the company, about 5,000 developers have received data during ‘the last several months,’ which says the company wrongly shared personal data for longer than it was authorized so.
There is no information on the data that might have been shared, but it could definitely have included email addresses, birthdays, gender, the language spoken, and more.
Really, Facebook?
This is not the first time Facebook is mishandling user data, whether from active or inactive users. From the looks of it, this won’t be the last time this will happen either. After the Facebook – Cambridge Analytica scandal, lots of people have quit using the social media platform and started to use Instagram (which is, ironically, also owned by Facebook) or other similar networks.
Facebook has been putting user data at constant risk, including people’s privacy and personal information. The latest incident is another instance. However, the social media giant has stated in its blog post that it will be ‘investigating the issue,’ so perhaps another security measure will be implemented. If that actually helps with anything.
Not convinced? Here is How to Permanently Delete Your Facebook Account
If you’ve been using the app for a while, you might have hundreds of photos and videos saved on its servers. Facebook is also storing information about where you’ve logged in, data and time you’ve clicked on ads, and your whole account history, which means everything you’ve done on Facebook since you created your account.
Before deleting Facebook, make sure to save a copy of all your data by clicking down the arrow in the title bar, going to ‘Settings,’ and clicking on the ‘Download a copy of your Facebook data’ option. Also, delete all your photos and posts as it will take 90 days for the content of your account to be wiped out after you delete it.
Social Book Post Manager is a plugin for Google Chrome that helps you delete multiple Facebook posts at once. Simply back up your data, as we instructed you above, install the plugin, head to ‘Facebook Activity Log,’ and choose one of the filters you want to delete (such as ‘Posts you’ve been tagged in’). Click on the Social Book Post Manager icon and search for a text string or a date window. These posts will be highlighted in yellow, and by clicking the ‘Delete’ button, you’ll be able to remove them.
Because Facebook isn’t keen to allow you to delete your account, it doesn’t offer an option for this in the settings. That’s why you need to visit Facebook’s account deletion page and select the ‘Delete my account’ option.
It can take 90 days for your data to be erased (or so Facebook says) from the company’s servers, but your account will be inaccessible once you delete it.
