Oops, they did it again

Facebook admitted yesterday (July 1) that some 5,000 third-party apps continued to access user data past the 90-day suspension period set by Facebook itself after the Cambridge Analytica scandal became public in 2018

"We recently discovered that some apps continued to receive data that people had previously authorized, even though they appeared not to have used the app in the past 90 days," Konstantinos Papamiltiadis, vice president of platform partnerships, wrote in a company blog He wrote in a post

"This could happen, for example, if someone used a fitness app to invite a local friend to work out, but was unaware that some of their friends had been inactive for months," Papamiltiadis added

To be fair, it appears that the third-party app continued to obtain only the data that the user had already allowed it to obtain and no more Data types included gender, date of birth, preferred language, and sex

However, the app exceeded Facebook's own rule that an app should not receive user data if the user has not used the app for more than 90 days

Papamirchiadis said Facebook "fixed the problem the day after we discovered it," but did not say "how recently" the problem was discovered or how many Facebook users were affected

Tom's Guide asked Facebook for these details and was told that the problem was discovered two weeks ago As for the number of users affected, a Facebook representative said they were still investigating

We can only hope that Facebook executives will not be subpoenaed to testify before Congress again to get the full story

The fact that it sounds so familiar sadly indicates that Facebook itself does not yet have the full picture of what is going on in its own systems This is assuming that Facebook has the best intentions, which many jaded and skeptical Facebook users may not want to admit

So what to do? Go into Facebook settings and go to "Apps and Websites" in the pull-down menu that appears when you click on the inverted triangle in the upper right corner of the desktop Facebook screen If there are apps there that you do not use regularly, delete them

Alternatively, you can learn to live without Facebook and delete your account