Facebook has released User Information incorrectly again

Facebook acknowledged that after 90 days of inactivity, a “problem” forced the program to share user data with 5,000 developers. Facebook announced in 2018 that applications using Facebook Login would automatically stop accessing user information if the user didn’t use this feature in the last 90 days. According to the Facebook news page, though the User was not active for 90 days, about 5,000 developers began to receive details. This problem has been discovered recently by the social networking giant, and resolved the next day. How many consumers were disturbed by the lapse was not mentioned by Facebook.

Like with Sign In With Apple or Google Login, App developers can register without creating a new account on Facebook’s Facebook Login and also provide developers with free access to certain data. Since this concerns applications from third parties, it is not clear which data were accessed specifically or how many consumers were significantly impacted.

In an article on Facebook, Konstantinos Papamiltiadis, vice-president of Facebook’s Platform Partnerships, claimed that “in some instances apps continued to obtain data that people had previously approved, even though they appeared to have not used the application for the previous 90 days.” Papamiltiadis said that, after 90 days of inactivity, Facebook reports about 5,000 developers have continued to receive user information such as language settings or user sex.

“We haven’t seen evidence of this problem leading to the sharing of information incompatible with the allowances people had when logged into via this platform,” added Papamiltiadis, adding that the problem was fixed on the day it was discovered and that the social media giant continues to investigate and “prioritize transparency around any major releases.”

Facebook did not clarify the developers’ access to key data and User Data, but gave an example of a situation in which this issue could have contributed to inappropriate data sharing. It said: “We (Facebook) didn’t even notice that some of your friends were absent for months when someone used a Fitness-App to invite their friends from home to a workout.”

Papamiltiadis said that the data development teams can share data with third parties without clear approval from users” was implemented with a new platform terms and changing policies.