Facebook has filed a lawsuit against a South Korean company which it says harvested users’ data and improperly used it in marketing campaigns.
The social network accused Rankwave, based in Seoul, of using 30 different apps to sweep up $9.8m (£7.5m) worth of Facebook data in order to give its advertising and marketing clients an edge.
It said that Rankwave refused to comply with an investigation into its practices and gave “false representations” when Facebook demanded that it account for the data it had gathered. Consequently, Facebook said, all of Rankwave’s apps have been suspended.
The lawsuit has echoes of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which political consultants used a personality quiz to collect personal information from around 87m users without their consent.
It is thought to be the first action of its kind since Facebook imposed new restrictions on how third party companies could access users’ data in the wake of Cambridge Analytica. Previously, Facebook has only suspended apps that violate its policies.
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content=""By filing the lawsuit, we are sending a message to developers that Facebook is serious about enforcing our policies, including requiring developers to cooperate with us during an investigation," said Jessica Romero, Facebook's director of platform enforcement and litigation, in a blog post published late on Friday night.” data-reactid=”22″>”By filing the lawsuit, we are sending a message to developers that Facebook is serious about enforcing our policies, including requiring developers to cooperate with us during an investigation,” said Jessica Romero, Facebook’s director of platform enforcement and litigation, in a blog post published late on Friday night.
Rankwave is a marketing company that claims to be able to sift and analyse data from millions of social media users and suss out their “activities and opinions” for the benefit of its clients.
On its website, the company boasts that it has “already figured out what type of person your customers are and what they are interested in”, and says it can identify the most influential social media users by looking at the connections between them.
One source of such data appears to be its Rankwave smartphone app, which asks users to log in with their Facebook accounts in order to assess their “social influence power” and discover whether they are a “powerful super connector”.
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="Now Facebook, in a complaint filed before the Superior Court of the state of California, alleges that this activity broke its rules. The company binds app developers to only use Facebook data on app users’ behalf, and not for their own "business purposes". ” data-reactid=”37″>Now Facebook, in a complaint filed before the Superior Court of the state of California, alleges that this activity broke its rules. The company binds app developers to only use Facebook data on app users’ behalf, and not for their own “business purposes”.
“Instead of only using data associated with its apps to enhance the app experience, Rankwave also used Facebook pages data associated with its apps for its own business purposes, which include providing consulting services to advertisers and marketing companies,” the lawsuit alleges.
It estimates the value of personal data collected by Rankwave, based on its acquisition by another company in 2017, at $9.8m, and seeks at least that much in damages plus a court order forcing it to delete all the data.
Facebook began investigating Rankwave in June 2018, and first demanded information on it in January this year. The complaint says that Rankwave denied any wrongdoing, but failed to provide proof.
Facebook declined to say when exactly it suspended Rankwave’s access to user data. The complaint says that at least one of its apps was still operating last month, raising the question of why Facebook waited so long after receiving no answer from it to block it from the service.
But the lawsuit also says Rankwave has given no proof that it has not transferred the data elsewhere. It demands that Rankwave “provide a full record” of which third parties were granted access to the data, and that it “identify all individuals, organisations and governmental entities” to which it “sold or otherwise distributed” it.
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="Facebook has previously sued a company in New Zealand for allegedly selling fake likes, views and followers on Instagram. Then, too, it said that it was "sending a message" that fraudulent activity "is not tolerate on [its] services".” data-reactid=”48″>Facebook has previously sued a company in New Zealand for allegedly selling fake likes, views and followers on Instagram. Then, too, it said that it was “sending a message” that fraudulent activity “is not tolerate on [its] services”.
Rankwave did not respond to requests for comment. Its privacy policy for Google’s app store was offline as of Friday.
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