<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/49103535.cms" style="width: 800px; height: 600px;" /><br />
Social networking giant Facebook has renamed its Internet.org app and launched it as Free Basics, a mobile app and website through which users can access certain services free of data charges. 
<br /><br /> Free Basics, targeted at countries like India, will now be one of the several initiatives under the Internet.org program which has a mission of connecting the unconnected population to the Internet. "We wanted to strike a differentiation between Internet.org and program with operator partnerships," said <keyword id="1989443" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Chris-Daniels">Chris Daniels</keyword>, VP of Internet.org. <br /><br />

	The company is also experimenting with Express Wi-Fi, a program to provide wi-fi in rural areas in India, top executives said.
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	The Free Basics app and mobile website went live in India with over 60 partnerships including services like English Dost, MeraDoctor and M-Kisan on Thursday. "We will have over 60 new developers and partners across 19 countries on Free Basics," said Ime Archibong, Director- Product Partnerships at Facebook.
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	When Facebook had rolled out Internet.org in India with telecom operator Reliance, it had come under fire from various quarters. It was termed a "walled garden" because the company got to choose which developers got to be on the platform.
<br /><br /> However, in May, Facebook CEO <keyword id="6354630" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Mark-Zuckerberg">Mark Zuckerberg</keyword> said that the platform will be opened up for all developers who can build their apps to the specifications put out by Facebook. <br /><br />

	"The fears that have been spread by some of our critics are simply not true. Internet.org was not designed to be a destination but its a digital literacy tool where people learn about the Internet and go on to explore all of it," said Daniels.
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	Any developer which meets the specifications listed can be on the platform, said Facebook.
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	The company said that operators have observed that people started accessing Internet 50% faster if they were given Internet.org. "After just 30 days, over half of people have moved on to the larger internet and gone beyond the free basic access," Daniels said.
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	"We've had a lot of discussion in India about free basic services. A lot of that discussion has been based on unfounded fears by our critics. They are afraid that it is going to be a destination and people will be confused that this is the whole Internet. The facts speak for themselves," he said.
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	Internet.org will also include initiatives like the Facebook Connectivity Labs which is building solar powered drones and systems that use satellites or laser technologies to transmit data.
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	In India, the company has been piloting Express Wi-Fi, a program under which local entrepreneurs are incentivised to setup Wi-Fi hotspots in various regions and sell data packs to users in the area.
<br /><br /> "We help them in terms of technical solutions, business model and marketing," Munish Seth, Country Manager Facebook Connectivity Solutions India, told ET. Facebook has already setup such hotspots in partnership with Internet Service Providers in parts of <keyword id="44522" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Uttarakhand">Uttarakhand</keyword> and Bangalore. <br />
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	(Image credits: Indiatimes)


Facebook's Internet.org app has a new name: Free Basics

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/48525533.cms" style="width: 800px; height: 600px;" /><br /> India is the numero uno country for developers outside US. In fact, 70 per cent of <keyword id="6354576" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Facebook">Facebook</keyword> developers are outside the US. Through programmes like <keyword id="2431804" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="fbSTART">FbStart</keyword> and Internet.org platform, Facebook is working with developers to build better mobile experiences that demonstrated the power of the internet. <br /><br />

	1.<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>FbStart- FbStart is a programme from Facebook designed to help early stage mobile start-ups build and grow their apps. It provides start-ups with an exclusive community, worldwide events, mentorship from Facebook and up to $80,000 in free tools and services. FbStart provides a community where they can work together and help each other.
<br /><br /> “We know we don’t everything, that’s why we are partnering, building a platform,” said <keyword id="2995595" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Ime-Archibong">Ime Archibong</keyword>, Director, Strategic partnerships, Facebook. <br /><br />

	Of the $50 million in benefits distributed to Asia Pacific start-ups through FbStart, Indian start-ups have received $21 million value of benefits since 2014.
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	2.<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Pre- launch benefits- Just starting out? Facebook give you tools you need to turn your great idea into a ready-to-launch app.
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	“We want to unlock the geniuses in young minds,” said Ime.
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	3.<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Bootstrap track members- Launched an app and ready to take it to the next level? FB helps you grow your app quickly and effectively.
<br /><br />

	4.<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Accelerate track- Your app is thriving, but now it’s time to scale. FB helps you turn your great app into an even better business.
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	A developer will be entitled to benefits like free ad credits worth up to $500 and access to platforms like Hootsuite (social media management plan), proto.io (Freelancer plan), Parse (free cloud server), workeble (Recruitment plan), transparent business as well as free access to innumerable tools related to the same.

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	(Image credits: 123on.com)


How Facebook is helping Indian developers grow?

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5d121926e3ecba005e5edc18-2057/marcy scott lynn.jpg" border="0" alt="Marcy Scott Lynn" data-mce-source="Facebook" data-mce-caption="Marcy Scott Lynn, Director of Global Impact Partnerships at Facebook." /><p class="source"><span>Facebook</span></p><p class="caption">Marcy Scott Lynn, director of global impact partnerships at Facebook.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li><strong>Marcy Scott Lynn is Facebook's director of global impact partnerships, which means she works to set up partnerships and programmes through which the company can have a positive impact on the world.</strong></li><li><strong>Lynn was heavily involved in creating Facebook's Safety Check feature, which allows people to tag themselves as safe during disastrous events.</strong></li><li><strong>She told Business Insider the origin story of Safety Check and how it was first activated in 2014 during typhoon Ruby in the Philippines.</strong></li><li><strong>Her team is only a year old, but has recently joined a tech for good partnership called 2030 Vision, which Lynn sees as its first big step.</strong></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.</a></li></ul><p>Marcy Scott Lynn was one of the brains behind Facebook's famous feature that allows people to tag themselves as safe during disastrous events - and she remembers its inception vividly.</p><p>A group of Facebook engineers in Japan were originally responsible for the idea following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. One of the biggest earthquakes ever recorded, it killed 19,000 and caused a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant that displaced more than 100,000 others.</p><p>The trouble was, the engineers' brainwave came after the worst of the devastation. It was not until a Facebook hackathon that the idea came to resemble something like what we know now as Safety Check.</p><p>A two-person team made up of an engineer and project manager took inspiration from the work of their Japanese colleagues, presenting a more sophisticated iteration of the tool at the event. They got "a lot of love from the crowd," recalls Lynn, now Facebook's director of global impact partnerships.</p><p>Lynn was working on the policy team at the time, and got pulled onto the project along with a designer. She remembers the first time the feature got deployed as if it were yesterday. Three years after the 2011 Tōhoku disaster, Typhoon Ruby swept through the Philippines - and Lynn's team sprung into action.</p><p>"It's burned into my brain - I remember it, it was typhoon Ruby in the Philippines. We were prepared, we knew it was coming, we were watching the weather reports." Typhoon Ruby, also known as typhoon Hagupit, hit the Philippines in December 2014 <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2014/12/485622-philippines-typhoon-hagupit-weakens-un-steps-action-emergency-response">forcing the evacuation of one million people</a>.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5d122610e3ecba02e86f5832-2400/typhoon ruby.jpg" border="0" alt="Typhoon Ruby" data-mce-source="VINCENT GO/AFP/Getty Images" data-mce-caption="Children sitting on a downed coconut tree following typhoon Ruby." /><p class="source"><span>VINCENT GO/AFP/Getty Images</span></p><p class="caption">Children sitting on a downed coconut tree following typhoon Ruby.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>"We had a meeting on [the] Friday... I just remember sitting in my home office with my daughter on my lap, we had all these people on video con, some people went into the office like 'is this gonna be it?'"</p><p>The team had painstakingly developed a set of criteria around which disasters would qualify for "mark yourself as safe," such as the number of people impacted, but actually setting the feature in motion required manual activation. "It literally required if it was in the middle of the night - which eventually it was - waking the on-call engineer to turn it on."</p><p>Scott says that until Facebook was able to automate the system, decisions on whether to activate the feature remained a "group effort." In its early days, the teams deciding whether to activate were cautious about overuse.</p><p>"Honestly I think originally we were probably biased towards fewer activations because we didn't want to inundate people. We didn't want Facebook to turn into a place where all that ever happened on there was 'disaster of the day,'" she explains.</p><p>Over time, however, the team gradually applied the feature to more disasters, including those created by humans, like the 2015 terror attack in Paris, France.</p><p>"We were able to really refine our thinking, we got a lot of help from outside experts in the humanitarian space to help us think through our criteria - especially as we tried to build a more automated product."</p><h2>Improving Facebook's 'handprint'</h2><p>Since its inception, Safety Check has been activated for 1,400 crises, a Facebook spokesman says. It is one of a number of projects Lynn has been involved with aimed at making Facebook a force for good.</p><p>Lynn was promoted to director of global impact partnerships in July 2018. The department was totally new, and a year on, it's still in the process of figuring out what its role in the company is going to be, Lynn told Business Insider.</p><p>"We are talking to organisations like Unicef, like Save the Children about strategic partnerships. It's not normally money, this is not a philanthropy programme per se, but it's more about creating programmes," says Lynn, who answers to Facebook's VP of partnerships Ime Archibong.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5b6167790ce5f51c008b49d5-1638/ime archibong.jpg" border="0" alt="Ime Archibong" data-mce-source="Getty" data-mce-caption="Ime Archibong." /><p class="source"><span>Getty</span></p><p class="caption">Ime Archibong, Facebook's VP of partnerships.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Lynn took up her new post as negative press about Facebook was starting to snowball. Since then, public sentiment towards the company has undoubtedly soured, and BI asked Lynn whether her job might be seen as whitewashing, pointing to worthy causes while problems like graphic content run rampant on its platform.</p><p>She describes the good Facebook can actively do in the world as the company's "handprint," whereas the passive effects of broad structural problems constitute its footprint. Lynn says the company is working hard to address both. "I don't see how we credibly operate in the social impact space without thinking about our footprint... I'm not sure we should only be doing one or the other," she says.</p><p>A concrete example of the kind of handprint Lynn wants to leave behind is Facebook's disease prevention maps, <a href="https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2019/05/disease-prevention-maps/">which the company announced in May</a>. The maps use anonymised location data from the African continent to build up detailed maps of population density, which can then be used by rescue and medical officials during natural disasters or disease outbreaks. The data can be narrowed down to specific demographics, such as women or elderly people.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5d14b89827b6520364616123-1101/mozambique elderly population map facebook.png" border="0" alt="Mozambique elderly population map Facebook" style="color: #000000;" data-mce-source="Facebook" data-mce-caption="This map shows the population density of elderly people in Mozambique." /><p class="source"><span>Facebook</span></p><p class="caption">This map shows the population density of elderly people in Mozambique.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Facebook developed the maps in collaboration with the UN, which in turn led to Facebook joining 2030 Vision, a tech partnership whose members include the UN, Microsoft, and ARM. The stated aim of 2030 Vision is to deliver on the <a href="https://www.globalgoals.org/">17 UN Sustainable Development Goals as laid out in 2015</a>. It is not to be confused with Vision 2030, the name of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's economic drive in Saudi Arabia.</p><p>Lynn hopes to come up with lots more ways for her team to improve Facebook's handprint on the world. "We've done a bunch of smaller projects as we try to figure out what makes sense," she adds, although she feels joining Vision 2030 is her team's first really big step.</p><p>"We are still feeling our way," Lynn says.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-falcon-heavy-rocket-most-difficult-launch-ever-2019-6">Watch SpaceX's 'most difficult launch ever'</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/yiAdiXUa-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

A Facebook director says the origins of its Safety Check feature shows why the firm is not as evil as people think

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5b616790e361c018008b4813-1814/ime archibong.jpg" border="0" alt="Ime Archibong" data-mce-source="Getty" data-mce-caption="Ime Archibong." /><p class="source"><span>Getty</span></p><p class="caption">Facebook VP Ime Archibong.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/facebook">Facebook</a> says that there's an innocent explanation for why it allowed Spotify and Netflix to access users' private messages - a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-allowed-netflix-and-spotify-to-access-private-messages-2018-12">behavior that it acknowledged</a> in the wake of a bombshell New York Times report. </li><li>Facebook says that the access was to allow users of those apps to share messages with each other via Facebook Messenger, like music recommendations on Spotify and movies on Netflix. </li><li>Importantly, writes Facebook VP Ime Archibong, the social network was not actively providing users' private messages to users.</li></ul><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/facebook">Facebook</a> says that there's an innocent explanation for why it allowed <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/spotify">Spotify</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/netflix">Netflix</a> to access users' private messages - a behavior that it acknowledged in the wake of a bombshell New York Times report. </p><p>In short, writes Facebook VP of Product Partnerships Ime Archibong in a <a href="https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/12/facebooks-messaging-partnerships/">blog post published on Wednesday evening</a>, the social network needed to give those partners special access in order to enable messaging features.</p><p><span> "We've been accused of disclosing people's private messages to partners without their knowledge. That's not true," Archibong says.</span></p><p>The experimental features, which are no longer available, allowed users of Spotify and Netflix to message their Facebook friends directly from those apps.</p><p>Spotify therefore needed permission to "write" private messages so users could share songs via Facebook Messenger; Netflix needed the same access so viewers of the streaming video service could share links to movies with each other. The same general idea goes for integrations with Dropbox and the Royal Bank of Canada app, which feature Facebook messaging features.</p><p><span>"That was the point of this feature - for the messaging partners mentioned above, we worked with them to build messaging integrations into their apps so people could send messages to their Facebook friends," writes Archibong.</span></p><p><span><strong>Read more:</strong><em><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-had-a-secret-data-deal-with-amazon-2018-12?r=US&amp;IR=T"> Facebook had a secret data deal with Amazon which flouted its own privacy rules</a></em></span></p><p>Importantly, Archibong says, these features did not mean that Facebook was actively supplying outside companies with your private messages; that users always need to grant permission for the companies to use these features; and that all of these social sharing features "<span>were experimental and have now been shut down for nearly three years."</span></p><p><span>Notably, Archibong's blog post does not mention Amazon, and only contains a passing, irrelevant reference to Apple - two companies that were <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-had-a-secret-data-deal-with-amazon-2018-12?r=US&amp;IR=T">identified by the New York Times report as also having potentially inappropriate access to Facebook user data</a>. </span></p><h3><a href="https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/12/facebooks-messaging-partnerships/">You can read Archibong's blog post here.</a></h3>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/singapore-waste-energy-garbage-landfill-space-2018-11">How Singapore solved garbage disposal</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/zEqff7z9-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

Facebook says there's an innocent explanation for why it allowed Spotify and Netflix to access your private messages

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5b6167790ce5f51c008b49d5-1638/ime archibong.jpg" border="0" alt="Ime Archibong" data-mce-source="Getty" data-mce-caption="Ime Archibong." /><p class="source"><span>Getty</span></p><p class="caption">Ime Archibong, Facebook's  vice president of product partnerships.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/facebook" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Facebook</a> is shutting down hundreds of the thousands of dormant apps following the Cambridge Analytica data scandal.</strong></li><li><strong>Inactive apps will be cut off from Facebook's application programming interface, which lets app makers access user data and Facebook functionality.</strong></li><li><strong>Facebook will continue ushering active apps through the review process, which includes them signing up to more robust terms on security and data protection.</strong></li></ul><hr /><p><br />Facebook is cutting loose hundreds of the thousands of apps after developers failed to go through the company's new review process following the Cambridge Analytica data scandal.</p><p><a href="https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/07/update-on-app-review/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">In a blog on Tuesday</a>, Ime Archibong - the man responsible for cleaning up Facebook's act after the Cambridge Analytica breach impacted 87 million users - said the firm is being ruthless to "better protect people's Facebook information."</p><p>The vice president of product partnerships said hundreds of thousands of inactive apps that did not submit themselves for review before 1 August will be shut off from Facebook's application programming interface, the developer platform that lets app makers access user data.</p><p>Active apps were encouraged to submit themselves for inspection as soon as possible, while Facebook will also start proactively queueing up apps for review. As part of the process, app makers <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/facebook-developer-terms-cambridge-analytica-2018-7">are asked to sign a "supplemental terms contract,"</a> which includes more robust security and data protection requirements.</p><p>Facebook ushering active apps through the review process is a sign that, while it is being strict about its new terms, it also does not want to lose products that drive engagement and ad revenue.</p><p>"Our goal with all these changes is to ensure that we better protect people's Facebook information while also enabling developers to build great social experiences," Archibong said.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-we-should-tax-facebook-productivity-tech-addiction-2018-7">NYU professor says Facebook should pay taxes for making us less productive</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/uXsSdU6i-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

Facebook is cutting loose hundreds of thousands of apps as part of its big data cleanup

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5b14c5c41ae6624d008b4b13-2000/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-congress-hearing.jpg" border="0" alt="mark zuckerberg facebook congress hearing" data-mce-source="Chip Somodevilla/Getty" data-mce-caption="Facebook co-founder, Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before a combined Senate Judiciary and Commerce committee hearing in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill April 10, 2018 in Washington, DC. Zuckerberg, 33, was called to testify after it was reported that 87 million Facebook users had their personal information harvested by Cambridge Analytica, a British political consulting firm linked to the Trump campaign." /><p class="source"><span>Chip Somodevilla/Getty</span></p><p class="caption">Facebook co-founder, Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before a combined Senate Judiciary and Commerce committee hearing in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill April 10, 2018 in Washington, DC.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>Facebook had data-sharing agreements with at least 60 device makers, including Apple, Amazon, Samsung, and Microsoft, many of which still exist.</strong></li><li><strong><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/06/03/technology/facebook-device-partners-users-friends-data.html">The New York Times reported</a> device makers were able to access data of users' friends, such as relationship status, religion, and political leaning.</strong></li><li><strong>Facebook confirmed the agreements, but said they were used for creating "Facebook-like experiences" before app stores were the norm.</strong></li><li><strong><span>But Facebook rejected claims that friends' data was available to device makers without a users' consent.</span></strong></li></ul><hr /><p><br />Facebook had data-sharing agreements with at least 60 device markers, many of which are still in effect, according to a report in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/06/03/technology/facebook-device-partners-users-friends-data.html">The New York Times</a>. </p><p><span>Apple, Amazon, Samsung, and Microsoft were all among the companies to have a data-sharing partnership with Facebook over the last 10 years, according to The Times. Without explicit consent, device makers were allowed to access data of users' friends, even after Facebook said it would not share such information.</span></p><p>A Facebook statement in response to the report denies that information belonging to friends of users was shared without permission.   </p><p><span>The data sharing was reportedly an issue as early as 2012.</span></p><p><span>"This was flagged internally as a privacy issue," Sandy Parakilas, who then led Facebook's privacy compliance, told  The Times. "It is shocking that this practice may still continue six years later, and it appears to contradict Facebook's testimony to Congress that all friend permissions were disabled."</span></p><p><span>The Times reported some device makers had access to user data such as relationship status, religion, political leaning and events. It also found the data of users' friends could be accessed, despite data sharing being turned off.</span></p><p><span>According to The Times most of these partnerships are still in effect, though some began to be wound down in April.</span></p><p><span>On April 10, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-hearing-notes-details-show-he-was-coached-2018-4">CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified</a> before a rare US Senate joint committee in response to the Cambridge Analytica scandal. A week earlier it emerged that data firm Cambridge Analytica may have gotten access to the data of up to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-87-million-cambridge-analytica-data-2018-4">87 million users</a>, and most of Facebook's 2 billion users may have had their personal data skimmed by "malicious actors."</span></p><p><span>Beginning in 2014, Facebook <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/even-after-cambridge-analytica-facebook-still-cant-grasp-privacy-2018-3">began ending</a> the access app developers had to users' friends data, which included names, birthdays, and even political or religious leanings. But The Times report suggests major device makers were not restricted by the same policy.</span></p><p><span>Ime Archibong, Facebook's vice president of product partnerships, responded to The Times' article with a blog post titled, "<a href="https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/06/why-we-disagree-with-the-nyt/">Why We Disagree with The New York Times</a></span>." He confirmed the use of the data sharing agreements with around 60 companies <span>-</span> including <span>Amazon, Apple, Blackberry, HTC, Microsoft, and Samsung - which were used to allow users to access Facebook back before there were app stores and standard operating systems.</span></p><p>"<span>These partners signed agreements that prevented people's Facebook information from being used for any other purpose than to recreate Facebook-like experiences," said Archibong. "Contrary to claims by the New York Times, friends' information, like photos, was only accessible on devices when people made a decision to share their information with those friends. We are not aware of any abuse by these companies."</span></p><p><span>Archibong said the rise of iOS and Android meant few people rely on the bespoke Facebook experiences these companies used to provide, which is why the company began "winding down" the partnerships in April, having ended 22 so far.</span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/prevent-stop-robocallers-spam-calls-2018-5">How to stop robocallers</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/jyOuGCl0-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

Facebook gave user data to 60 companies including Apple, Amazon, and Samsung

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5af9829c965f4c33008b49d1-1416/screen shot 2018-05-14 at 133333.png" border="0" alt="Mark Zuckerberg F8 2018" data-mce-source="Justin Sullivan/Getty" /><p class="source"><span>Justin Sullivan/Getty</span></p><p class="caption">Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>Facebook has suspended 200 apps on its platform and investigated thousands of others which might have misused people's personal data.</strong></li><li><strong>The company is in the middle of auditing apps which are plugged into its platform, after the Cambridge Analytica scandal earlier this year.</strong></li><li><strong>Facebook has allowed thousands of apps to suck up people's data over the years, and it's a hugely time-consuming task to audit all of them.</strong></li></ul><hr /><p><br />Facebook said it has suspended 200 apps on its service and investigated thousands of others in order to prevent a second Cambridge Analytica data scandal.</p><p>The company hasn't actually named which apps it has suspended, partly because it's still confirming whether any of them did actually misuse people's data.</p><p>Here's what Ime Archibong, Facebook's vice president of product partnerships, <a href="https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/05/update-on-app-audit/">said in a company post on Monday</a>:</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">"To date thousands of apps have been investigated and around 200 have been suspended - pending a thorough investigation into whether they did in fact misuse any data. Where we find evidence that these or other apps did misuse data, we will ban them and notify people via <a href="https://facebook.com/help/yourinfo">this website</a>. It will show people if they or their friends installed an app that misused data before 2015 - just as we did for <a href="https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/04/restricting-data-access/">Cambridge Analytica</a>."</p><p>Archibong wrote that Facebook was identifying apps that had access to large amounts of people's data, though he didn't explain how. Then, where the firm had concerns, it is contacting developers for information and asking "detailed questions" about the data they had access to. He said the company might visit developers in person and look at what data they hold, though again it isn't clear how this would happen.</p><p>It's a drastic and labour-intensive measure, but one that Facebook feels is necessary to try and win back public trust.</p><p>Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-3-steps-facebook-cambridge-analytica-scandal-2018-3">first announced in March that the company would carry out an audit</a> of the apps plugged into the platform in order to prevent <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/facebook-87-million-cambridge-analytica-data-2018-4">a second Cambridge Analytica scandal</a>.</p><p>The original scandal came about after <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/cambridge-analytica-trump-firm-facebook-data-50-million-users-2018-3">an academic named Aleksandr Kogan created a quiz app which collected people's Facebook data</a> and their friends' data. Kogan then handed that data, comprising some 87 million people's profiles, to a third-party political research firm Cambridge Analytica, which may have used the data for political ads.</p><p>The major headache for Facebook is that the company has allowed thousands of similar apps to plug into its platform over the years in the same way - and now it has to audit any that might have syphoned off people's data without proper permissions.</p><p>Archibong wrote: "There is a lot more work to be done to find all the apps that may have misused people's Facebook data - and it will take time. We are investing heavily to make sure this investigation is as thorough and timely as possible. We will keep you updated on our progress."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/wyze-labs-camera-google-nest-cam-2018-4">How a tiny camera startup is taking on Amazon and Google</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/0uQoCcbK-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

Facebook has suspended 200 apps and investigated thousands of others in case they misused people's data

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5a996017aae6051b078b463b-1186/screen shot 2018-02-20 at 103129.png" border="0" alt="Mark Zuckerberg sad serious" data-mce-source="Stephen Lam/Reuters" data-mce-caption="Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has tried to control the narrative of the app's declining usage" /><p class="source"><span>Stephen Lam/Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>Facebook is investigating another quiz app created by University of Cambridge academics following the Cambridge Analytica scandal.</strong></li><li><strong>According to the New Scientist, Facebook is probing the myPersonality app, which collected data from 6 million people, around 40% of whom agreed to share their Facebook information.</strong></li><li><strong>Britain's Information Commissioner's Office is also investigating whether the data collected was poorly anonymised.</strong></li><li><strong>The myPersonality app creator said Facebook has been aware of the app for years.</strong></li></ul><hr /><p><br />Facebook has launched an investigation into another app created by University of Cambridge academics after it sucked up the data of millions of users.</p><p>The <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2168713-huge-new-facebook-data-leak-exposed-intimate-details-of-3m-users/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New Scientist reported that Facebook is investigating personality quiz app myPersonality</a>, which the science journal said secured the information of around 3 million user profiles.</p><p>The myPersonality case has loud echoes of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which the data firm was given access to millions of US Facebook profiles harvested by researcher Aleksandr Kogan's This Is Your Digital Life quiz app. In fact, the New Scientist said Kogan was a collaborator on the myPersonality project until 2014.</p><p>The myPersonality app - which is still <a href="https://www.psychometrics.cam.ac.uk/productsservices/mypersonality" target="_blank" rel="noopener">referenced on the University of Cambridge website</a> - was created in 2007 by David Stillwell, the deputy director of the university's Psychometrics Centre. According to Cambridge, it encouraged Facebook users to take psychometric tests up until 2012.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5afa94d73797e92b008b496f-561/mypersonality.png" border="0" alt="myPersonality" data-mce-source="University of Cambridge" data-mce-caption="Information about the myPersonality app on the University of Cambridge website." /><p class="source"><span>University of Cambridge</span></p><p class="caption">Information about the myPersonality app on the University of Cambridge website.</p></div><p></p></div></div>MyPersonality "collected data from over 6 million volunteers" during the five years it was active, 40% of whom "opted in to share data from their Facebook profile." It created "one of the largest social science research databases in history," according to information on the Cambridge website. Crucially, the academics also shared the data.</p><p>"This data was anonymised and samples of it were shared with registered academic collaborators around the world through the myPersonality project, resulting in over 45 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals," said the Cambridge website.</p><p>Facebook confirmed to Business Insider that it is investigating myPersonality after suspending the app on April 7. "If myPersonality refuses to cooperate or fails our audit, we will ban it," said Ime Archibong, Facebook's vice president of product partnerships.</p><p>It follows Facebook confirming on Monday that it <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/facebook-suspended-200-apps-investigating-thousands-data-cambridge-analytica-2018-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">has suspended 200 apps and investigated thousands of others in case they misused people's data.</a></p><p>Britain's Information Commissioner's Office is also looking into the matter due to reports that the data was poorly anonymised. A username and password to access some of the data were shared by a lecturer on GitHub, according to the New Scientist. An ICO spokeswoman told Business Insider: "We are aware of an incident related to the myPersonality app and are making enquiries."</p><p>A University of Cambridge spokesman said myPersonality was created by Stillwell five years before he joined the institution. The spokesman added that the app did not go through its "ethical approval processes," and the university does not "own or control the app or data."</p><p>Business Insider has contacted myPersonality's creator David Stillwell for comment. He told the New Scientist that Facebook was aware of the app and had participated in meetings discussing the project. "It is, therefore, a little odd that Facebook should suddenly now profess itself to have been unaware of the myPersonality research and to believe that the use of the data was a breach of its terms," he said.</p><p>The New Scientist said Cambridge Analytica, which was shut down earlier this month in a blaze of bad publicity, tried to gain access to the myPersonality data in much the same way it did with Kogan's research. It was denied, however, on the grounds of its political ambitions.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-duplex-home-assistant-full-conversations-make-appointments-reservations-2018-5">Google's new AI can impersonate a human to schedule appointments and make reservations</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/9NaapOJm-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

Facebook is investigating another app created by Cambridge University academics after it hoovered up the data of millions of users

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5b35e445b0ff6f1c008b4762-1173/nametestscom.png" border="0" alt="Nametests.com" data-mce-source="Nametests.com" data-mce-caption="Nametests.com, the website behind Facebook quizzes with more than 120 million monthly users ."><p class="source"><span>Nametests.com</span></p><p class="caption">Nametests.com, a website behind Facebook quizzes with more than 120 million monthly users .</p></img></div><p></p></div></div><ul><li><strong>An&#xa0;ethical hacker found a security loophole in&#xa0;Nametests.com, a popular maker of Facebook personality quizzes.</strong></li><li><strong>The flaw could have exposed the Facebook data of more than 120 million users to third parties.</strong></li><li><strong>Nametests said there was "no evidence" that data was misused.&#xa0;</strong></li></ul><hr><p><br>Ethical hacker Inti De Ceukelaire<a href="https://medium.com/@intideceukelaire/this-popular-facebook-app-publicly-exposed-your-data-for-years-12483418eff8"> published an article in Medium</a> on Wednesday detailing how he found a security loophole in a popular maker of Facebook personality quizzes.</br></p><p>In the wake of the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-data-did-cambridge-analytica-have-access-to-from-facebook-2018-3?utm_content=buffer069cc&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=facebook.com&amp;utm_campaign=buffer-bi">Cambridge Analytica scandal</a>, Facebook <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/r-facebook-launches-bounty-program-for-reports-of-data-misuse-by-app-developers-2018-4">announced the launch of a&#xa0;bounty program</a> in April, designed to reward people for flagging the misuse of data by app developers.</p><p>De Ceukelaire was one of those who began investigating, starting with personality quizzes created by&#xa0;Nametests.com, which claims to have more than 120 million users.</p><p>He noticed while loading a quiz that the website was fetching his personal Facebook information via Nametests, meaning his data was publicly available to third parties.</p><p>De Ceukelaire ran a test to see how easy it would be to steal someone's personal data by setting up a website to connect to Nametests.com. He ascertained that one visit to the website would provide access to someone's personal Facebook data for up to two months. Even if someone deleted the app, Nametests could still reveal their identity.</p><p>According to De Ceukelaire, depending on which quizzes a user took, a huge amount of user data could have been leaked, including their Facebook ID, first name, last name, language, gender, date of birth, profile picture, cover photo, currency, devices you use, when your information was last updated, posts and statuses, photos and friends.</p><p>If someone deleted the app, their Facebook ID, first name, last name, language, gender, and date of birth were all still vulnerable. He noted the only way to prevent this would be by manually deleting all your cookies.</p><p>De Ceukelaire reported this bug to Facebook on April 22, and on June 25 he noticed Nametests&#xa0;had fixed the loophole in its script that allowed third parties to access data. The fix was also announced on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/BugBounty/posts/2117617158252499">Facebook's Bug Bounty page</a>.</p><p>In his piece, De Ceukelaire writes that while Nametests has more than 120 million active monthly users, there's no way of knowing how many people could have been affected since its launch in 2015. According to archive.org, the flaw had been present in the site's code since at least the end of 2016, he said.</p><p>In a statement sent to Business Insider, the&#xa0;Data Protection Officer for Nametests' developer Social Sweethearts said: "The investigation found that there was no evidence that personal data of users was disclosed to unauthorised third parties and all the more that there was no evidence that it had been misused."</p><p>De Ceukelaire decided to donate his bounty of $4,000 to the <a href="https://freedom.press/">Freedom of the Press Foundation</a>, which Facebook matched for a total of $8,000.</p><p>Ime Archibong, Facebook's vice president of product partnerships, said: "A researcher brought the issue with the Nametests.com website to our attention through our Data Abuse Bounty Program that we launched in April to encourage reports involving Facebook data. We worked with nametests.com to resolve the vulnerability on their website, which was completed in June."</p><div><iframe width="854" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/VjbHWOwtCf0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div><div><iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FBugBounty%2Fposts%2F2117617158252499&amp;width=500" width="500" height="376" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allow="encrypted-media"></iframe></div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-people-get-wrong-about-superfoods-nutrition-health-acai-goji-turmeric-quinoa-2018-6">What people get wrong about superfoods</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/KuWvR8s0-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div></hr>

A hacker found Facebook quizzes with a flaw that could have exposed the data of 120 million people

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5784267b4321f1f5018b75ec-911/go.jpg" border="0" alt="Smartphone" data-mce-source="Drew Angerer/Getty Images"><p class="source"><span>Drew Angerer/Getty Images</span></p><p class="caption">The BBC looked at how tech firms hook people on their platforms.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div><ul><li><strong>The BBC's "Panorama" documentary has investigated how tech giants like Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat get their users hooked.</strong></li><li><strong>The show spoke to Silicon Valley insiders who claim that social media companies deliberately engineer their platforms to be addictive.</strong></li><li><strong>Facebook said it is working with third parties to find out whether a habit-forming interface can impact people harmfully.</strong></li></ul><hr><p><br>Silicon Valley insiders <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-44640959" target="_blank" rel="noopener">have told the BBC</a> how tech firms, including Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter, deliberately engineering their platforms to foster addictive behaviour.</br></p><p>Aza Raskin, the inventor of the infinite scroll feature which allows you to endlessly scroll down your newsfeed or timeline, said: "It's as if they're taking behavioural cocaine and just sprinkling it all over your interface. And that's the thing that keeps you like coming back and back and back."</p><p>The former Jawbone and Mozilla executive said tech companies are testing people all the time to figure out the best way to get them addicted, for example by tinkering with the colour and shape of the "like" button.</p><p>"Behind every screen on your phone, there are generally like literally a thousand engineers that have worked on this thing to try to make it maximally addicting," he said.</p><p>Leah Pearlman, co-inventor of Facebook's "like" button, told the BBC that she herself became addicted. "When I need validation - I go to check Facebook," she said. Pearlman also said that she never intended the "like" feature to be addictive.</p><p>The BBC also spoke to former Facebook engineer Sandy Parakilas, who left the company in 2012 and <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/facebook-whistleblower-sandy-parakilas-interview-2018-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">has been extremely critical of its approach to privacy in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal</a>. He said that the social media giant was fully aware it promotes addictive behaviours.</p><p>"There was definitely an awareness of the fact that the product was habit-forming and addictive," he said."You have a business model designed to engage you and get you to basically suck as much time out of your life as possible and then selling that attention to advertisers."</p><p>It is not the first time an ex-Facebook executive has broken ranks on addiction. Former President Sean Parker <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIfrMwql6Fo">said last year</a> that the social media site was "exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology." He claimed that founders and creators like himself and Mark Zuckerberg understood this, "and we did it anyway."</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5b3c845a70e2913b008b4899-2400/sean%20parker.jpg" border="0" alt="Sean Parker" data-mce-source="Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Global Citizen" data-mce-caption="Former president of Facebook Sean Parker."><p class="source"><span>Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Global Citizen</span></p><p class="caption">Former president of Facebook Sean Parker.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div><p>Ime Archibong, Facebook's VP of product partnerships, told the BBC that the company is investigating whether an addiction-forming interface impacts people harmfully.</p><p>"We're working with third-party folks that are looking at habit-forming behaviours - whether it's on our platform or the internet writ large - and trying to understanding if there are elements that we do believe are bringing harm to people," he said. "So that we can shore those up and we can invest in making sure those folks are safe over time."</p><p>In 2017, <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/facebook-social-media-bad-for-users-mental-health-2017-12">Facebook admitted that excessive use of social media</a> can have a detrimental effect on people's mental health. Business Insider has contacted Facebook for comment.</p><p>The BBC's "Panorama" documentary broadcasts in the UK on Wednesday night. It is also set to make allegations about Snap-owned Snapchat and Twitter, although the promotional material did not make clear the specifics.</p><p>Snap told the BBC that it does not use visual tricks to increase engagement. Twitter declined to comment when contacted by the BBC. Business Insider has contacted both companies for comment.</p><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Are you addicted to your smartphone?<br><br>Top Silicon Valley designer Aza Raskin says social media companies use tricks to get you hooked. <br><br>Watch Smartphones: The Dark Side at 7pm on <a href="https://twitter.com/BBCOne?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BBCOne</a>. <a href="https://t.co/otFhzi2B6d">pic.twitter.com/otFhzi2B6d</a></br></br></br></br></p>- Panorama 🌐  (@BBCPanorama) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/1014282894246739968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 3, 2018</a></blockquote><script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-people-get-wrong-about-superfoods-nutrition-health-acai-goji-turmeric-quinoa-2018-6">What people get wrong about superfoods</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/KuWvR8s0-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div></hr>

Silicon Valley insiders revealed that Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter are using 'behavioural cocaine' to turn people into addicts

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53613c9d6bb3f741770c4b3b-1065-799/facebook-f8-mark-zuckerberg-6.jpg" border="0" alt="facebook f8 mark zuckerberg" /><p class="source"><span>Kyle Russell/Business Insider</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Facebook will launch a new mobile like button, Facebook's director of strategic partnerships, Ime Archibong said.</p>
<p>The news came at Facebook's F8 conference for app and software developers.</p>
<p>It will be "an easy, lightweight way to share content with a broad group of friends across Facebook."</p>
<p>Previously, apps didn't have a good, easy way of adding in a like button. Like buttons have been all over web sites since 2010. But those button exist largely on the desktop web.</p>
<p>As users transitioned to mobile, and viewed the web through apps rather than through a web browser, they often lost the ability to hit that little blue button and "like" something.</p>
<p>Yet publishers love the like button because it drives so much traffic and app discovery.</p>
<p>And now it will be as easy to put a like button inside a mobile app as it is on a web site. That doesn't sound like a huge deal - but for mobile app developers it will be huge. They love this stuff.</p>

Facebook Will Launch A New Mobile Like Button

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5ae26d8c19ee861e008b4604-2071/gettyimages-98592734.jpg" border="0" alt="facebook ceo mark zuckerberg" data-mce-source="Justin Sullivan/Getty Images" data-mce-caption="Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg smiles during an interview at the Facebook f8 Developer Conference April 21, 2010 in San Francisco, California." /><p class="source"><span>Justin Sullivan/Getty Images</span></p><p class="caption">Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>Facebook's annual F8 conference is supposed to be a celebration, but the company could be in for a rough reception this year from some angry developers. </strong></li><li><strong>In response to the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-87-million-cambridge-analytica-data-2018-4">Cambridge Analytica scandal</a>, Facebook locked down its platform and paused all new app and chatbot approvals.</strong></li><li><strong>"There could be a lot of unhappy developers next week throwing tomatoes at Mr. Zuckerberg," one developer remarked.</strong></li><li><strong>Others are more optimistic, and want to see how they can work with the new tech Facebook is likely to unveil.</strong></li></ul><hr /><p><br />On Tuesday, Facebook is kicking off its keynote event of the year: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/this-is-why-facebooks-mark-zuckerberg-wants-to-kill-the-smartphone-with-ar-2017-4">F8, an extravagant two-day conference</a> dedicated to showcasing new products, interacting with developers and generally celebrating all things Facebook.</p><p>But following months of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-newspaper-ads-apologize-for-cambridge-analytica-scandal-2018-3">bad press and executive apologies</a>, this year's F8 is expected to be a more serious affair than usual. Following sweeping changes made to how apps can interact with its platform, the mood among developers is varied - from optimistic about potential announcements to verging on apocalyptic.</p><p>"I think new data privacy restrictions and how it impacts them is a key concern for developers," Laura Martin, managing director of investment bank Needham &amp; Company said in an email.</p><p> Or as one disgruntled developer put it more bluntly: "They're declaring war on their partners."</p><h2>Cambridge Analytica's isn't just causing problems for Facebook</h2><p>The<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-87-million-cambridge-analytica-data-2018-4"> Cambridge Analytica scandal,</a> which began with reports of the political research firm misappropriating 87 million users' data but soon morphed into a fullblown panic over data privacy that sent CEO Mark Zuckerberg to Congress, is arguably the worst crisis in Facebook's 13-year history.</p><p>Zuckerberg and other executives have gone on an apology tour, promising to take a "broader view of our responsibilities," and making a number of changes to the platform. These including new privacy controls for users, limiting how developers can access and use users' data, and - perhaps most significantly for developers - imposing <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/28/17173614/facebook-cambridge-analytica-data-app-review-process">a moratorium on approving any new apps for the social network</a> or any Messenger bots for the messaging platform.</p><p>For startups that rely on Facebook as an integral part of their business, this can be a major setback - and highlights just how vulnerable some businesses are to the company's actions.</p><p>Andrew Magliozzi, CEO of AdmitHub, a startup that builds chatbots for universities and colleges to provide information for their students, called the moratorium "terribly unfortunate."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5ade084b19ee8633008b46cb-731/screen shot 2018-04-10 at 105334.png" border="0" alt="Facebook thumbs down protest menlo park" data-mce-source="Justin Sullivan/Getty" /><p class="source"><span>Justin Sullivan/Getty</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>The company has a number of schools in the pipeline, each requiring a new version of the bot tailored to the institution. But until Facebook's pause on approvals is lifted, there is nothing Magliozzi can do for these potential customers or to otherwise grow his user base.</p><p>"I have no idea what to expect," the exec said of F8. "Quite honestly it's kind of a black box at this point ... [it] could be everything from  a wholesale restructuring and abolishing of the bot ecosystem ... [to] a return to the status quo."</p><p>Another executive at a company in the Facebook Messenger partner ecosystem, expressed frustration that the entire developer community was being punished for the actions of Cambridge Analytica. "They're declaring war on developers and we've done nothing wrong," he said.</p><p>The developer, who asked to remain anonymous, compared Facebook's actions that of God changing the "Ten Commandments" retroactively.</p><p>He added: "There could be a lot of unhappy developers next week throwing tomatoes at Mr. Zuckerberg."</p><h2>It's not all doom and gloom</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5888e243ee14b637588b9498-2400/mark zuckerberg happy.jpg" border="0" alt="Mark Zuckerberg happy" data-mce-source="Beck Diefenbach/Reuters" data-mce-caption="Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg." /><p class="source"><span>Beck Diefenbach/Reuters</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Other developers are more optimistic - particularly those less directly impacted by the changes - and are focusing more on the tech Facebook is expected to announce.</p><p>Auston Bunsen, who is a lead for Facebook's "Developer Circle" in Miami, Florida, said due to the changes "it's definitely been a bit of a pain to use FB APIs, particularly [Instagram] APIs since the CA scandal. I understand it, but me and other friends who have been using it to find customers automatically are now cut off."</p><p>But he wasn't predicting any tomato-throwing at F8, and was confident Facebook would be able to push through the crisis: "The mood will probably be good, they always have great breakouts &amp; cool technology launching. I'm sure they'll put extra effort in to combat the negative press they've received lately."</p><p>Alexandru Ilescu, CEO of language-learning app Mondly, said his startup had not been significantly affected by the changes - and that he was excited to learn more about Facebook's augmented reality efforts and how Mondly could work with them.  (Facebook put Business Insider in touch with Ilescu.)</p><p><a href="https://later.com/blog/instagram-api/">In a blog post published April 8</a>, marketing platform Later cofounder Matt Smith, said the changes will only have a "minimal" impact on his company's offering, and that his company supports the changes, viewing them as a "good move" for keeping users safe and secure.</p><h2>'These changes can be disruptive'</h2><p>Facebook's vice president of product partnerships, Ime Archibong, acknowledged the "disruption" but praised developers in adapting to these changes.</p><p>"We'll always make the important platform changes, trying to strike the right balance between creating compelling social experiences, protecting people's data, and supporting an innovative developer ecosystem. These changes can be disruptive," he told Business Insider in an emailed statement provided by the company.</p><p>"But Facebook developers are incredible partners and help us ensure the platform enables experiences that are both social and safe. This F8, it's important to bring our global community together to navigate these changes and explore new ways we can build community."</p><p>Facebook recently got some much-needed good news in the form of Q1 financial results that surpassed analysts' expectations, and F8 will provide another opportunity for the company to reset the narrative.</p><p>But the experiences of developers in recent weeks demonstrates that that Facebook doesn't just have to show its ordinary users it is owning up to its mistakes and moving forward: It needs to convince the developer community too.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/wyze-labs-camera-google-nest-cam-2018-4">How a tiny camera startup is taking on Amazon and Google</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/0uQoCcbK-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

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