INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Facebook changed its policies in 2014, prohibiting developers from obtaining info on users (AFP)Facebook told British lawmakers on Thursday
that it never read the terms and conditions for an app that ultimately allowed Cambridge Analytica to access 87 million users' names,
"likes" and other personal information.The admission from Mike Schroepfer, the chief technology officer for the social media giant, concerns
a quiz app made by researcher Alexander Kogan, and his firm known as GSR, which collected data on users who authorized it, as well as scores
It then transferred that data to Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy that later had been hired by President Donald Trump, so that
the firm could assemble psychographic profiles of voters.Schroepfer is representing Facebook in British parliamentary hearings, one of
multiple investigations around the world into the company's privacy practices.On Thursday, Jo Stephens, a member of Parliament, asked
Facebook if it had read and evaluated the terms and conditions for Kogan's app, called ThisIsYourDigitalLife, before allowing it on the
Facebook's Schroepfer replied: "We did not read all the terms and conditions.Facebook changed its policies in 2014, prohibiting developers
from obtaining information about users as well as their friends
Schroepfer said the new oversight included a "move to a proactive review process where if an app developer wanted access to additional data
they would have to go to a review with our teams."Yet he could not say if Facebook read the terms of use for all apps allowed on the site
prior to changing its policy or banning Kogan's tool in 2015
"I can't say we never read them, I think it wasn't a requirement that we read them," Schroepfer said.For Facebook, the acknowledgment that
it didn't closely study the apps on its platform could prove troubling to investigators in Europe as well as the United States.Along with
the U.K., which has held hearings to probe the matter, regulators with the European Union are also studying the Cambridge Analytica
The EU's Parliament has asked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify at an upcoming hearing, but he has not committed to an appearance.In
the United States, Facebook is facing the potential of massive fines from the Federal Trade Commission if the agency determines that the
company misled users about its privacy protections
Facebook also revealed recently that malicious actors scraped public profile data from the site's roughly 2.2 billion users.Facebook said
1,040 people in the UK had installed Kogan's app, which allowed it access to around 1 million friends' personal information
They and others have been notified, as Facebook undergoes a review of all apps on its platform and their privacy practices
Schroepfer said Thursday he could not give a precise timeline as to when the review would be completed.Facebook also told U.K
lawmakers on Thursday that it would seek to ensure political ads targeting British lawmakers and voters are more transparent, much as it has
pledged to do in the United States
It will vet and label those ads in time for local elections in May 2019, Schroepfer said.(This story has not been edited by staff and is
auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
