Facebook to Sue South Korean Data Analytics Company, Rankwave, Over Failure to Abide by Policies

Facebook was under a lot of heat when the Cambridge Analytica scandal exploded. As we may have all heard, the scandal involved a personality-quiz app created by a representative from Cambridge, where Facebook users downloaded and answered the questions. What many didn’t know at the time, is that users’ personal information (as well as those involving their friends) was stored in a private database, as opposed to having them deleted after getting said input.

Although this happened early last year, it has definitely scarred Facebook, as the CEO and Founder, Mark Zuckerberg was questioned from different officials on numerous occasions. On Saturday, May 10, Facebook’s Director of Platform Enforcement and Litigation, Jessica Romero disclosed another similar case.

In particular, she shared that Facebook has filed a lawsuit against South Korean Data Analytics firm, Rankwave because of the way they have been displaying their advertising and marketing services on Facebook’s platform. Here’s an overall idea of the reason behind the lawsuit:

“Rankwave failed to cooperate with our efforts to verify their compliance with our policies, which we require developers using our platform. Facebook has already suspended apps and accounts associated with Rankwave, and today’s suit asks the court to enforce the basic cooperation terms that Rankwave agreed to in exchange for the opportunity to operate apps on the platform.”

He also reported on this matter and disclosed that Rankwave may be pulling something similar to the Cambridge Analytica Scandal – as the South Korean firm failed to accept a request made for an audit in relation to the type of information they have access to and what they’ve done afterwards. More specifically, they quoted aspects of the lawsuit, which included:

“Rankwave [was] offering to help businesses build a Facebook authorization step into their apps so they can pass all the user data to Rankwave, which then analyzes biographic and behavioral traits to supply user contact info and ad targeting assistance to business.”

Romero further noted that this action is done to bring awareness of the consequences existing and future developers who currently or plan to use Facebook’s platform will face if Facebook’s policies are neither taken seriously nor abided by.