Facebook suspends tens of thousands of apps in ongoing privacy investigation

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Facebook-the social media company that has been under intense public criticism for not adequately safeguarding the personal information of its 2 billion users-has suspended tens of thousands of apps for a variety of violations, including improperly sharing private data.

In a post published on Friday, Facebook VP of Product Partnerships Ime Archibong said the move was part of an ongoing review that began in March 2018, following revelations that, two years earlier, Cambridge Analytica used the personal information of as many as 87 million Facebook users to build voter profiles for President Donald Trump's presidential campaign. Facebook has been embroiled in several other privacy controversies since then.

The tens of thousands of apps were associated with about 400 developers. While some of the apps were suspended, in a few cases others were banned completely. Offenses that led to banning included inappropriately sharing data obtained from the Facebook platform, making data available without protecting user's identities, or clear violations of the social network's terms of service.

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