Facebook to offer rewards for reporting app misuse of personal data

News Broadband Global 10 APR 2018
Facebook to offer rewards for reporting app misuse of personal data

Facebook has launched another effort to stem the abuse of personal data on the social network, offering rewards to people who report any misuse of data by app developers. Inspired by the usual 'bug bounty' programmes to detect security vulnerabilities, the Data Abuse Bounty programme will pay cash to people with first-hand knowledge and proof of cases where a Facebook platform app collects and transfers people’s data to another party to be sold, stolen or used for scams or political influence. 

The company did not say how much it would pay, only that the amounts will be "based on the impact of each report". It noted that the company has paid as much as USD 40,000 for high-impact bug reports in the past. 

If the company confirms the data abuse, the offending app will be shut down, and Facebook said it would take legal action against the company selling or buying the data, "if necessary". Anyone affected by the data abuse would be informed.

Categories:

Internet

Companies:

Facebook

Regions:

Global

Tags:

Production planning & operations, Data services, Messaging, IT - applications, Portals / social media, Information services, Advertising services

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