Facebook quiz app may have leaked personal data of 120 million users

While the whole Cambridge Analytica scandal isn’t that far in our past, we knew it was going to unearth a lot of skeletons in Facebook’s closet. The latest one is a Facebook quiz app that may have leaked personal data of around 120 million users who’ve answered the quizzes. Security researcher who goes by the username Inti De Ceukelaire discovered the leak by taking part in Facebook’s data abuse bounty program launched in April 10. One of the third-party apps he looked through was from NameTests.com and there he discovered that the site exposed Facebook users’ data to “any third-party that requested it.” He found that the app exposed user information through javascript, which could easily share files between sites as part of its basic functions.

The site has possibly leaked information since the end of 2016 and De Ceukelaire reported it to Facebook by April 22. Unfortunately, Facebook’s response wasn’t as speedy as the fix only came around the end of June. According to NameTests’ parent company, Social Sweethearts, they have investigated the issue but no user data has been compromised and they are working on measures to avoid these risks from happening in the future. 

Source: TechCrunch

Facebook tests out new feature to track the time you spend on the social network

Tech companies are acknowledging our need to have better control over our digital health. The latest one to join this initiative is Facebook. The company is testing out a new feature that can show you how much time you spend on the platform. The “Your Time on Facebook” feature shows you the time you’ve spent on the social network over the past seven days as well as the average for the total week. You can set a time limit on how long you’re in the application and it’ll notify you when you’ve hit your limit. Facebook hasn’t given a specific timetable when this will roll out to more users but the company has told TechCrunch that they are “working on new ways to help make sure people’s times on Facebook is time well spent.”

Facebook Messenger Kids app comes to Canada and Peru

Facebook’s controversial chat app Messenger Kids is making its way out of the US and into Canada and Peru. It’ll also now be available in French and Spanish. The app, which is designed for kids under 13, has been met by criticism from advocacy groups for being harmful to kids as they shouldn’t be exposed to social media accounts at such young ages. Facebook has said the app complies with the Children’s Online Privacy and Protection Act but advocacy groups like the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood saying in an open letter that “young children are simply not ready to have social media accounts” and are “not old enough to navigate the complexities of online relationships.”

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Facebook will soon autoplay video ads in Messenger

Facebook has admitted in the past that it no longer has room in its main app for ads. What’s their solution? Putting it in its other apps like Messenger and Marketplace. You may or may not have already noticed ads on Messenger and tried to ignore them. But now you might no longer be able to with Facebook’s plans to rollout autoplaying video ads to integrate alongside your messages.

When asked if users might find this obnoxious, Stefanos Loukakos, who run’s Messenger’s ad business, acknowledges this possibility and said they’re monitoring user behavior to see if these ads will turn people off. He said that when they started integrating basic ads to the service, it “didn’t show any changes with how people used the platform or how many messages they send.” He adds, “Video might be different, but we don’t believe so.” Facebook will start testing this with some of its users starting Monday. Let us know what you think if this hits your inbox.

Source: Recode