According to a latest report from The Wall Street Journal, Facebook is receiving highly personal information from apps that track your health and help you find a new home. Facebook can receive this data from certain apps even if the user does not have a Facebook account. Recently, a report suggested that Facebook has paid teenage users to install an app that would allow the company to collect all phone and web activity. This made Apple revoke some developer privileges from Facebook, saying Facebook has violated its terms by distributing the app through a program meant only for employees to test apps prior to release. However, the new report says that Facebook is able to receive data from over 70 popular apps and found at least 11 apps sending potentially sensitive information to Facebook. The apps included the period-tracking app Flo Period & Ovulation Tracker, which reportedly shared with Facebook when users were having their periods or when they indicated they were trying to get pregnant. Real estate app Realtor reportedly sent Facebook the listing information viewed by users, and the top heart-rate app on Apple's iOS, Instant Heart Rate: HR Monitor, sent users' heart rates to the company, the Journal's testing found. The apps ...
Friday, 22 February 2019
Several apps reportedly share sensitive personal information with Facebook
According to a latest report from The Wall Street Journal, Facebook is receiving highly personal information from apps that track your health and help you find a new home. Facebook can receive this data from certain apps even if the user does not have a Facebook account. Recently, a report suggested that Facebook has paid teenage users to install an app that would allow the company to collect all phone and web activity. This made Apple revoke some developer privileges from Facebook, saying Facebook has violated its terms by distributing the app through a program meant only for employees to test apps prior to release. However, the new report says that Facebook is able to receive data from over 70 popular apps and found at least 11 apps sending potentially sensitive information to Facebook. The apps included the period-tracking app Flo Period & Ovulation Tracker, which reportedly shared with Facebook when users were having their periods or when they indicated they were trying to get pregnant. Real estate app Realtor reportedly sent Facebook the listing information viewed by users, and the top heart-rate app on Apple's iOS, Instant Heart Rate: HR Monitor, sent users' heart rates to the company, the Journal's testing found. The apps ...
