Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Web
  3. News

Another Facebook privacy scandal — 3 million users’ data exposed by quiz

Jon Martindale
By
Mark Zuckerberg speaking on stage
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Facebook is once again at the center of a scandal over data mining on its platform, after it was discovered that another personality quiz hosted on the social network harvested the personal information of some three million people. The data was only supposed to be accessible through an approved research platform, but has since been discovered on a website with little to no protection.

Facebook has been embroiled in a number of data protection and privacy scandals in recent months, most notably surrounding the alleged election-interfering firm Cambridge Analytica. Much of the concern over that company’s involvement with Facebook was in how it harvested the data of users through quizzes on the site under the guise of academic research. It seems now that it wasn’t the only one.

Recommended Videos

In the case of this new data scandal, the “myPersonality” quiz was used to collect various pieces of information about users who took part in a psychology quiz on Facebook. Some half of those who took part allegedly gave their permission for data to be shared with third-party researchers. New Scientist reports that some 280 people at different technology companies were given access and, somewhere along the way, that data ended up on a website that was very insecure. It was password protected, but those login credentials were said to be easily found with a simple web search.

Related

Although not as expansive as the data exposed in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, this latest leak did still contain results of the personality quiz, as well as personal Facebook details and even status updates of 150,000 users. The strongest link with the earlier data harvesting, though, is that the University of Cambridge’s Psychometrics Center controlled both data sets. Alexandr Kogan, who is a core component of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, was part of this project as well.

Another striking element of this story is how far back it goes. The Verge highlights that the data collection project may have begun in 2009 and there was some discussion of Cambridge Analytica acquiring the data, though apparently it was turned down due to its involvement in politics.

Facebook’s response to the story has led to a promised investigation into the myPersonality quiz and associated apps. Facebook has so far suspended 200 apps that could be involved in data harvesting in this manner. New Scientist however, highlights that Facebook has been aware of the quiz since as far back as 2011.

Want to improve your privacy on Facebook? Here are our top tips.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Jon Martindale
Jon Martindale
Computing Coordinator
Jon Martindale is the Evergreen Coordinator for Computing, overseeing a team of writers addressing all the latest how to…
Targeted Facebook ads are about to lose a big audience: iPhone owners
facebook hacked

The face of Facebook advertising is about to change. With Apple’s rollout of iOS14 in September, Facebook issued a short statement to advertisers letting them know that their formerly hypertargeted ads, as facilitated by the Facebook Audience Network platform, might not work anymore. As first reported by Axios, this will likely have a huge impact on the advertising industry, of which Facebook plays a huge part in the U.S. But while this may be bad for the advertisers and for Facebook, this could be a win for users’ privacy

The next update of the iPhone software will feature a new function wherein users have to opt in to being tracked by advertisers. This will require apps to ask iPhone users’ permission to collect and share their data. This puts advertisers who rely heavily on Facebook’s platform in a pickle, as Facebook’s ads are notorious for being extremely specific to the user.
Accomplishing what the boycott couldn’t
July 31 saw the end of a massive, much-ballyhooed advertising boycott — with more than 1,000 brands participating — that was supposed to bring Facebook to its financial knees in the name of social justice. Instead, the boycott barely dented the platform’s revenue.

Read more
Facebook says Apple didn’t let it tell users about App Store tax
facebook paid event image

Facebook claims Apple made it remove a note that informed users paying for an online event on iOS about the mandatory 30% App Store tax, Reuters reports.

While announcing its new paid online events feature, Facebook committed to a zero-fee policy allowing small businesses and creators to keep 100% of the revenue they generate -- except for if the user is paying on an iOS app. There, due to Apple’s mandatory in-app purchase tax, the social network said it planned to label online event ticket purchases with a message that read: “Apple takes 30% of this purchase.” On Android, the note says: "Facebook doesn't take a fee from this purchase."

Read more
Facebook’s new privacy tool convinced me to delete my account
facebook hacked

For years, my Facebook account has practically sat dormant. It's a nostalgic relic of the past that lets me occasionally walk down the memory lane of my life’s first two decades. But it's also a weak link in my digital privacy. I've known for years that Facebook is constantly watching, studying me as I wander through the web. Still, I never gathered up the courage to delete my account and burn it to the ground once and for all. Until last week, that is.
The final nail in the Facebook coffin
A few days ago, I found myself staring wide-eyed at the rundown of all the nearly 1,400 websites and apps that have gathered data on me and shared it with Facebook. I was looking at the Off-Facebook Activity tool, one of the recent additions to Facebook’s suite of security options for users that I had fortuitously stumbled upon. Moments later, my cursor was hovering over the Delete Account button.

Facebook knows a lot about you. After the countless controversies and privacy “bugs,” you probably already knew that. What most people are not familiar with, however, is the vast network of third parties that has enabled Facebook to invade nearly every app you use, and become the data superpower it is today.

Read more