Facebook continues to limit access to user data for third-party apps
The company is still doing damage control in the wake of Cambridge Analytica.
In the wake of all the trouble from Cambridge Analytica's access and misuse of data, Facebook continues to update its policies around third-party access to user data. At the beginning of April, Instagram announced that it would be limiting third-party apps' ability to pull data from the photo-sharing company's API. Now, parent company Facebook has released more product and policy changes of its own to protect the privacy of its users (and totally save face). The changes include provisions around the transfer of data outside the Facebook app, the use of service providers, data processing by technology partners and how Facebook monitors compliance with its own terms.
Many APIs will be deprecated, making it so they no longer work for developers of third-party apps. The Events API will no longer allow apps to RSVP to events for you, and two analytics tools will no longer offer app event metrics or exports from the analytics app. Third-party apps will also no longer be able to publish posts to Facebook for you via the Facebook Login API. Apps that currently have those permissions will only be able to do so until August 1st. Additionally, developers won't be able to use the Graph API to pull the name and bio of users that comment on posts on Instagram anymore; usernames and comments will remain, however.
Apps that publish to Pages via the Live API will be restricted to approved partners only. Developers have until the 1st of August to apply to the approved partner system. This will be required to keep publishing live and video on demand to Pages. Apps in development mode will have their call limits set to 200/page/app/hour, as well. Development apps will also only have access to info on admin, developer or tester users. Organic targeting, based on gender and language will also be deprecated for posts made with a third-party app. Some age-gating will still be allowed in a limited way. Apps won't be able to attach their name or logo to images in Messenger. Developers will also no longer be able to call for information on where photos were tagged, effective immediately.
