Facebook has filed a lawsuit alleging that South Korean data analytics company Rankwave abused its developer platform data and has refused to comply with a mandatory compliance audit, provide compliance proof, and heed requests to delete the data. Facebook's lawsuit is focused on Rankwave apps for businesses, which tracked and analysed Facebook Pages data, such as public comments and likes on the page. Rankwave created and operated at least 30 consumer and business apps on the Facebook developers platform between 2010 and 2019. Additionally, Rankwave's consumer app tracked users' popularity or "social influencer score" on Facebook by analysing the level of interaction that other users had with the app user's Facebook account. This app ran from March 2012 until March 2018. Facebook has already suspended apps and accounts associated with Rankwave, said its director of platform enforcement and litigation Jessica Romero. "By filing the lawsuit, we are sending a message to developers that Facebook is serious about enforcing our policies," wrote Romero, "including requiring developers to cooperate with us during an investigation." Rankwave refuses audit, compliance proof Rankwave also apparently violated terms of use with Facebook by pulling Facebook Pages data associated with its apps for providing consultancy services to advertisers and marketing companies, instead of using data from its apps only to enhance app experiences. Facebook Platform data is not supposed to be repurposed for other business goals, only for the developer to improve their app’s user experience. Notably, Rankwave had been doing this since at least 2014. Rankwave…
