After the outrage over the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook is taking measures to avoid any further outcry.
According to the reports, on Sunday, Facebook temporarily suspended CubeYou, a data analytics firm, for gathering people’s private information similar to how Cambridge Analytica did it.
What’s surprising is that Facebook took this into consideration only after CNBC investigated and highlighted the issue.
The firm said that the quizzes it used to generate the data that it sold to marketers were for “non-profit academic research”.
In its reports, after seeing CubeYou using data for something other than its intended purpose and Facebook’s not taking action initially when it started, CNBC highlighted the part that “the social media platform has little control over this activity.”
Facebook even admits that it is unable to control information that companies mislabeled.
Ime Archibong, Facebook’s Vice President of Product Partnerships, said in a statement:
These are serious claims and we have suspended CubeYou from Facebook while we investigate them.
If CubeYou does not pass Facebook’s audit, the company would be banned for good. So far the suspension is temporary.
Furthermore, the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, would be testifying before the Congress later this week on the Cambridge Analytica issue and privacy concerns.
Facebook is also working on alerting people if Cambridge Analytica gets hold of the data again.
How CubeYou Collects Data
CubeYou uses various apps to gather personal information like names, phone numbers, employment, internet addresses and relationship statuses of the users.
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After the data is collected the information is linked to other sources to “enhance the profiles” and to attract the marketers.
The data is mostly collected from “You Are What You Like” which is a personality quiz that judges your personality according to the Facebook Pages you have liked.
Via Engadget
