Headline May 04, 2018/ ''' *FACEBOOK'S -*PRIVACY*- FLAMETHROWERS '''

''' *FACEBOOK'S -*PRIVACY*- 

FLAMETHROWERS '''

FOR MUCH OF ITS HISTORY -  Facebook has had a rocky relationship with developers. It has sometimes -

Adopted policies to - attract developers, including by opening access to its vast troves of user data-

Developers, in turn, created apps that became emblematic of the Facebook experience - apps such as Farmville, a farming simulation game played with friends on the social network, which was made by the game company Zynga. 

FOR YEARS, and years Cubeyou, a small data analytics company, made a business out of personal data on Facebook.

The company had unfettered access to Facebook's user information, which is gathered up through the quizzes and later sold to clients.

But three weeks ago, Cubeyou's relationship with Facebook soured. The mighty social network, which was dealing with the backlash over its level of protection for user privacy, cut off Cubeyou after-

A CNBC report said that the company had misled people into believing its quizzes would be used for nonprofit academic research.

Instead, the report said, the data was sold to marketeers.

Federico Treu, Cubeyou's chief executive, told The New York Times that his company had followed  Facebook's rules in disclosing that it was using profile data for both academic and business purposes.

He said Cubeyou had been just collateral damage as Facebook over zealously scrambled to show that it cared about data privacy.

''Facebook threw us under the bus,'' said Mr. Treu, who added that he intended boycott a Facebook event for developers this week.

''Facebook became what it was because of us developers. Now they want to blame us for everything that has happened to them.''

Facebook's relationship with its vast community of developers has reached a tense moment once more.

Since news broke in late March that the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica had improperly harvested the information of millions of Facebook users -

The social network has made a series of changes to limit how much of its users' information can be obtained by a third parties.

Those shifts have had an unintended domino effect on many of the companies and the programmers that relied on Facebook's spigot of data for their businesses.

Some like Cubeyou, said they have been unfairly blocked from processing Facebook users.

Tinder the dating app, discovered that its users were no longer able to log into the app using their Facebook accounts.

Pod, a calender syncing app, found that its users could no longer see Facebook events within their calendars.

And Job Fusion, a Jobs app that allowed users to see where their Facebook friends worked, announced that it was not longer able to offer its services within Facebook.

The fallout has cast a shadow over Facebook's annual meeting with developers which was scheduled to start on Tuesday in San Jose, Calif.

The event which includes a speech from Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's chief executive, is typically a major attraction for developers.

But this year, half a dozen developers who had previously attended the conference told The Times  that they did not plan to go because they objected to Facebook's policy changes.

Others who planned to be there said they intended to challenge Facebook's leaders over the changes.

Facebook said it expected roughly 5,000 people - a record high - to be at the developers conference, which is known as F8. But the  company also said it has tweaked the event with an eye toward data privacy.

For example, the social network cancelled the announcement of a Facebook smart home speaker to challenge Amazon's Echo and Google's Home amid-

Worries that the device would raise more questions about the amount of data the company collects.

Ime Archibong, Facebook's vice president of product partnerships, said developers are ''incredible partners'' for the company, but also added that it must -

''Strike the right balance between creating compelling social experiences, protecting people's data   and supporting an innovative developer ecosystem.''

The Honor and Serving of the latest  Operational Research on Social Networks and Developers'  Ecosystems continues. The World Students Society thanks author and researcher Sheera Frenkel.

With respectful dedication to millions of  Facebook users the world over, and then the Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya all register on !WOW! - the World Students Society and Twitter-!E-WOW! - the Ecosystem 2011:

''' Levers & Carriers '''

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless