Facebook could be in violation of Europe's privacy law as a new study found that popular Android apps are sending user data to the social networking site without consent.
According to the Financial Times, the Privacy International campaign group analysed 34 of the most popular Android apps and found at least 20 of them send certain data to Facebook in the second that they are accessed on a phone even before the users can be asked for permission.
Some of these apps are Kayak, MyFitnessPal, TripAdvisor, Qibla, Period Tracker Clue, Indeed and My Talking Tom. The data sent includes the name of the app, the unique identification of the user with Google and the number of times the app was opened and closed since it was downloaded.
Although Facebook claimed an SDK update will disable the sharing of data in apps, many popular apps are still not using it and some developers said that data sharing is still happening with the new SDK.
Europe's privacy law, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), requires that users be asked for their consent before any personal data is collected. If apps developers are found guilty of violating this law, they are liable to a maximum fine of 4% of their annual turnover.
The past year has seen multiple reports of Facebook not managing or protecting users' data properly. Last month, a New York Times article shed light on the partnerships between Facebook and some tech giants (Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Netflix and Spotify) where these companies are allowed to read users' private messages. A Photo API bug, which gave developers unauthorized access to users' photos, affected up to 6.5 million users between 13 September and 25 September 2018. Hackers had access to personal data of 29 million Facebook accounts.
Source: Financial Times via 9to5Google
Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.