Facebook sues app maker, says it made millions misusing Facebook user data

Enlarge / The Facebook login screen. (credit: Getty Images | NurPhoto )

Facebook has sued a data analytics company that operated apps on the Facebook platform for nearly a decade, saying the company misused Facebook data to sell advertising and marketing services. Facebook filed the lawsuit on Friday against Rankwave, a South Korean company, in California Superior Court for the County of San Mateo.

Facebook also suspended Rankwave and its apps from its platform, but Rankwave apparently still has a trove of Facebook user data. Facebook’s lawsuit seeks a court order requiring the company to delete Facebook user data and suggests that Rankwave may have sold the user data to other unidentified entities. Rankwave refused to tell Facebook which entities it sold data to and refused to “[p]rovide a full accounting of Facebook user data in its possession,” Facebook says.

“Rankwave is an application developer that breached its contract with Facebook by violating Facebook’s policies and California law,” Facebook’s lawsuit alleged. Rankwave has developed and operated apps on the Facebook platform since 2010 and “used the Facebook data associated with Rankwave’s apps to create and sell advertising and marketing analytics and models—which violated Facebook’s policies and terms,” the lawsuit said.