---
title: "It’s Begun: Facebook Just Banned 200 Apps For Abusing User Data"
description: "Facebook released a statement, announcing it is suspending 200 suspicious apps from its platform. But what about all the others?"
date: "2018-05-14"
modified: "2018-05-14"
authors:
  - name: "Victor Tangermann"
    job_title: "Senior Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor"
url: "https://futurism.com/facebook-banned-200-apps-abusing-data"
categories:
  - "Artificial Intelligence"
  - "Meta"
tags:
  - "cambridge analytica"
  - "data scandal"
  - "facebook"
  - "mark zuckerberg"
---

# It’s Begun: Facebook Just Banned 200 Apps For Abusing User Data

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/fb-app-ban.png>)
*\<em\>Image: \<a href="https://pixabay.com/photo-311185/" target="\_blank"\>Clker-Free-Vector-Images / Emily Cho\</a\>\</em\>*

Cambridge Analytica might have been [the first leak](<https://futurism.com/abuse-facebook-data-cambridge>) in the dam of secret data abuse, but, man, that thing is simply *gushing* now. And Facebook is [that little Dutch boy](<http://johnhelmer.net/the-little-dutch-boy-his-finger-and-the-leak-in-the-dyke-story-make-that-the-buk-story/>) trying to stick his fingers in those data leaks just as fast as he can.

Today, [Facebook announced](<https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/05/update-on-app-audit/>) it had suspended 200 apps for possible data "misuse." The company discovered the apps' possible wrongdoing after Mark Zuckerberg, in a [long-winded note](<https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10104712037900071>) from March 21, promising to thoroughly investigate "all apps that had access to large amounts of information before we changed our platform to dramatically reduce data access in 2014" — the year in which Facebook finally got wind that some of these companies might be abusing its treasure trove of data and [restricted access](<https://techcrunch.com/2015/04/28/facebook-api-shut-down/>) to "bad actors."

The statement comes two weeks after [Facebook resumed its review process,](<https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/1/17307610/facebook-third-party-apps-review>) which it had [put on hold](<https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/28/17173614/facebook-cambridge-analytica-data-app-review-process>) at the end of March when the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke.

To set users' worried minds at ease after news of the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke, Facebook released a handy-dandy ["did you get screwed by us?" tool](<https://www.facebook.com/help/yourinfo>) intended to notify you if a third party "bad actor" abused your data. So far, This Is Your Digital Life — a quiz that Cambridge Analytica abused to harvest user data — is the only app currently listed on that tool; at the time of writing, it hasn't been updated to include the most recent 200 apps.

We don't know if Facebook knew about these 200 apps at that time, or how many people were affected by them. One thing we *do* know: at least [87 million Facebook users](<https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-exposed-87-million-users-to-cambridge-analytica/>) in the U.S. had their data stolen. And with the people who used those 200 new apps joining their numbers, well, expect to have that 87 million number to rise dramatically. That's not great news, since users that discover that their data leaked are left with [pitifully little recourse](<https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/facebook-data-cambridge-analytica-advice_us_5acb7cdbe4b09d0a1195e58b>) other than trying to prevent even more abuse in the future.

And Facebook will likely ban even more apps for the same reason in the future. A [2012 report by Adweek](<http://www.adweek.com/digital/facebook-platform-supports-more-than-42-million-pages-and-9-million-apps/>) estimates that the Facebook platform supports *more than 9 million apps* — and that was more than six years ago.

Of course, not all of those apps collected extensive amounts of users' personal data, but it would be foolish to believe that Facebook managed to weed out all the bad ones (and have such a small proportion of them, when taking data like that was perfectly permissible before 2014) after just a few weeks. Indeed, the deluge of abusive apps has likely only begun.

## Author
I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/vtanger.bsky.social>)