from the all-that-data-just-for-the-asking dept.
Submitted via IRC for SoyCow3941
The apps are deemed malicious by doing things such as capturing pictures and audio when the app is closed, or making an unusually large amount of network calls. These allow apps to access a range of information from Facebook profiles, like name, location and email address.
Trustlook discovered the malicious apps using a formula, which created a risk score for apps based on more than 80 pieces of information for each app, including permissions, libraries, risky API calls and network activity.
"The Cambridge Analytica data-harvesting scandal was mainly a result of developers abusing the permissions associated with the Facebook Login feature," Trustlook researchers said, in a post. "When people use Facebook Login, they grant the app's developer a range of information from their Facebook profile. Back in 2015, Facebook also allowed developers to collect some information from the friend networks of people who used Facebook Login. That means that while a single user may have agreed to hand over their data, developers could also access some data about their friends. Needless to say, this realization among Facebook users has caused a huge backlash."
Source: https://threatpost.com/tens-of-thousands-of-malicious-apps-using-facebook-apis/131566/
(Score: 5, Touché) by KiloByte on Wednesday May 02 2018, @10:59PM (2 children)
And how do they differ from Facebook itself? It also does anything it can to sniff out your personal data for nefarious purposes.
Ceterum censeo systemd esse delendam.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 03 2018, @04:42AM (1 child)
And google and microsoft windows and apple products and ...
https://www.gnu.org/proprietary/proprietary-surveillance [gnu.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveillance_capitalism [wikipedia.org]
As evidenced by what exactly? I see the sheeple not changing their habits one iota. Whining doesn't count and even that's in short supply...
Stop being abused today, install https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/requestpolicy-continued/ [mozilla.org] and disable JavaScript.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 03 2018, @08:56PM
I agree, what backlash. Less that 1% snap out of their Matrix-pod and its "big news". We need 30%, 60% or more to make a difference. The time to wake up was 10 to 15 years ago. Now we need a revolution to throw off the yoke we so comfortably slipped into.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 02 2018, @11:41PM (1 child)
Relax, sheep, this is for your own good. We will tell you what to buy. We will tell you who to vote for. We will tell you that transgender people are normal.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 04 2018, @09:19AM
Whoah hey - whoever modded this flamebait; please rethink. Trans folk need to be accepted, not shoehorned into normal. Trans is not currently the mean or median, and life is fucking hard in the overwhelming majority of places in the world, USA included (which by tone I take above to be). That's like saying the black experience in the USA is "normal". Not for any normal I want to live in. Let's nail acceptance, then normal life will become available.