Are you one of 17 million Facebook users using the “Most Used Words” wordcloud Facebook app? However, it asks for too much in return.
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Vonvon, protected by a vague and expansive privacy policy, is technically able use any of this data, even after the user has terminated membership with the company. It seems fair as there are also other harmless apps that require logins from the social network giant.
Once it has sold that data on, it gives no protection for how it is used.
What does Vonvon do with all the data it receives? “Your data is the golden calf and quiz companies live and die by trading whatever they can siphon from your feed”, Anthony Karcz of Forbes reminded readers in a blog post summarizing the Vonvon controversy.
Even in cases where businesses don’t collect user-specific data, the reality of the digital world is that small pieces of metadata, such as users’ locations and times, can be analyzed together to give a clear picture of a person’s identity, as The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this year. Tough luck if you haven’t read it before clicking OK, because agreeing to the policy is equivalent to allowing the company to sell or share your details.
According to Bischoff, there are no take-backs once you have played the quiz. However, it can still amass more as it goes viral.
The problem is, it’s not made by Facebook and a British tech website is now warning that users should be wary of similar content.
“The easiest way is to avoid online quizzes that require Facebook authentication altogether”. You can see the “Logged in with Facebook” list under the Apps section – click “x” to remove any application that you don’t trust or recognise.
Another raged: “People, stop playing random cool-looking quizzes from companies you don’t know – especially those that ask you for a bunch of information access things to let you play, in return for a prettily designed but totally useless infographic”.
A backlash is developing against the “Most Used Words” app, after it was shown that as well as scanning the data of all Facebook posts made in 2015, it is also harvesting a tranche of other personal information.
The issue raises an alarming fact about everyday Internet users.
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But privacy experts have claimed all these hapless social media lovers may have inadvertently handed all their private information to advertisers.
