Facebook Gets Smacked By Yet Another Data Privacy Scandal

Facebook has had its hands full dealing with privacy scandals over the past several months, but you can add yet another problem to the list this week. In a recent report from New Scientist, it was revealed that more than 3 million Facebook users had their personal data collected and stored on an easily-accessible site for four years.  

The report revealed that academics at the University of Cambridge (no connection to the recent Cambridge Analytica scandal) collected data from users who answered questions on the myPersonality quiz app, then distributed it to hundreds of researchers via a website that wasn’t properly secured. The info that users provided includes demographics, status updates, profile pictures and more.

The information was anonymized on the site, but because there was so much of it and it was so detailed, anyone interested could’ve revealed the identity of the users.  

In response, Facebook suspended myPersonality last month — but not before the data had already been out there for years. And of course, by suspending the app, Facebook is laying all blame at its feet. In reality, Facebook did next to nothing to make sure leaks like this didn’t happen. And only now that it’s been caught does the company care about securing our private info.