“An engineer at Facebook notified the company in October 2014 that entities with Russian IP addresses had been using a Pinterest API key to pull over 3bn data points a day [from Facebook],” he said. It said they were legitimate data requests for approximately 6m items a day, not the 3bn claimed by the engineer. “Our fine for Facebook wasn’t about whether UK users’ data was shared with Cambridge Analytica. We fined Facebook because it allowed apps and app developers to harvest the personal data of its customers,” Denham told the international grand committee on disinformation. Soon after, Facebook decided to cut off developers’ access to the data of users’ friends, in effect dooming the company.

Source: The Guardian November 27, 2018 18:48 UTC