Facebook Shuts Off Access To User Data For Hundreds of Thousands of Apps

In a blog post, Facebook said that it's shutting off access to its application programming interface for hundreds of thousands of inactive apps. This interface is what lets app developers access user data. The Verge reports: The company had set an August 1st deadline back in May, during its F8 developer conference, for developers and businesses to re-submit apps to an internal review, a process that involves signing new contracts around user data collection and verifying one's authenticity. The goal is to ensure third-party software on Facebook was in line with the company's data privacy rules and new restrictions put in place in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which a third-party developer siphoned user data and sold it to another firm in violation of Facebook's terms of service. Now, after it identified numerous apps that were either inactive or from developers who had not submitted the software for review, Facebook is cutting off those apps' access to its Platform API.