Facebook sues data analytics firm Rankwave over alleged data misuse

Facebook sues South Korean data analytics firm Rankwave over alleged data misuse and violation of social network’s rules.

Facebook filed a lawsuit against Rankwave in a California State court in Silicon Valley to verify if the analytics firm is violating the rules of the social network giant.

Facebook is asking the court to audit the activities conducted by
Rankwave to verify which data were obtained and how they have been used.

“Today Facebook filed a lawsuit in California state court against Rankwave, a South Korean data analytics company that ran apps on the Facebook platform.” said Jessica Romero, Facebook’s director of platform enforcement.

“Facebook was investigating Rankwave’s data practices in relation to its advertising and marketing services,”

Facebook was investigating the advertising and marketing activities of the South Korean company and accused it of the lack of co-operation in demonstrating compliance with Facebook policies. Experts fear
Facebook might face with a new Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal,

“Rankwave failed to co-operate with our efforts to verify their compliance with our policies, which we require of all developers using our platform.”

The social network suspended apps and accounts associated with Rankwave and asked the court to order it to respect its rules for applications.

“By filing the lawsuit, we are sending a message to developers that Facebook is serious about enforcing our policies, including requiring developers to co-operate with us during an investigation,” Romero adds.

Rankwave apparently misused data collected by his app for checking users’ social media “influencer score”. That app collects a huge quantity of data that could be used fr many other purposes.

“The use of a seemingly fun app to slurp up user data and repurpose it for other business goals is strikingly similar to how Cambridge Analytica’s personality quiz app tempted millions of users to provide data about themselves and their friends.” reported Techcrunch.

According to Facebook, it would be hit with a fine of $3 billion to $5 billion by the US Federal Trade Commission for “user data practices.”

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – Facebook, Rankwave)

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