Facebook rewords policy to expressly forbid harnessing data for surveillance
Facebook has closed a legal loophole in its terms and conditions of use which allowed developers to harness its data for surveillance, changing its language to more clearly outlaw such practices.
Tightened wording expressly prohibits developers from using "data obtained from us to provide tools that are used for surveillance", making such activity explicit for the first time.
The changes, which will affect Instagram users as well, have been prompted by a number of recent incidents in which the social network was obliged to take "enforcement action" against third-party developers who have been abusing their data access rights, according to the update.
In the wake of the controversy all three platforms revoked Geofeedia’s access rights, but now Facebook has joined Twitter in going out of its way to call out such behavior.