San Francisco (AFP)

Facebook, under increasing pressure from US authorities, announced Friday that it has suspended from the platform tens of thousands of applications, which pose a potential risk in terms of respect for the privacy of its users, according to an internal investigation conducted on millions of applications.

The social network launched this investigation in response to the Cambridge Analytica scandal: in 2018, a whistleblower revealed that this British company had conducted massive manipulation campaigns, via third-party applications on Facebook, to influence US voters and British.

"We promised at the time that we would review all the apps that had access to significant amounts of information (about users, Ed) before the change of our rules in 2014," said in a statement Ime Archibong, vice president of partnerships at Facebook.

For this big survey, the platform worked with "hundreds of people: lawyers, external investigators, data analysts, engineers (...)", in order to "better understand the abusive mechanisms" and to be able, in fine, " dislodge harmful actors from the developers ".

The suspensions involve 400 developers but "do not necessarily mean that these apps pose a threat to people," said Archibong.

- "Far from having finished" -

In March 2018, a former employee of British data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica (CA) revealed that he had unwittingly collected the personal data of tens of millions of Facebook users in the United States.

Information that would have made it possible to develop psychological profiles to then target them with political messages, in particular in favor of the Brexit or the election of Donald Trump to the American presidency in 2016.

The US consumer protection agency imposed a record $ 5 billion fine on Facebook in July for "misleading" its users over the control of their privacy, especially during this massive leak of personal data.

"We are far from finished," Ime Archibong says of the ongoing internal investigation. "Every month, we incorporate what we've learned and we're reviewing ways for developers to use our platforms," ​​such as Instagram, a more social network focused on photos and videos, and messenger messaging.

He recalls that the platform has limited the possibilities for applications to collect data unless it demonstrates that they serve to "improve the user experience. (...) Apps whose usefulness is limited, such as quizzes of personalities, are no longer allowed on Facebook ".

- Legal actions -

Some applications have been suspended because they "have not responded to our requests for more information," he says, and some have been banned, including for "sharing data inappropriately" or "not having protected the identity of users".

Facebook has also taken legal action against companies that refuse to cooperate or who have created applications to hack users' phones.

Since the outbreak of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the network of 2.4 billion users has been receiving special attention, especially from Western governments, regarding the use and management of personal data. He faces several investigations in the United States on this subject as well as on his commercial practices.

Facebook's founding boss, Mark Zuckerberg, was received Thursday by Donald Trump at the White House, and met with elected officials in the US Congress. According to Senator Josh Hawley, he rejected the idea of ​​selling Instagram and WhatsApp in order to address concerns about the weight of his social network.

Facebook's business model relies on the collection of user data, which is anonymously aggregated and resold to advertisers for both very thin and large-scale ad targeting.

© 2019 AFP