Facebook Launches A Data Abuse Bounty Program Worth Rs 26 Lakh!
If you have a proof or any first-hand knowledge that an app on the social networking site is violating the terms of service, you can directly report it to Facebook now.
As the Facebook chief was being grilled by American Congress over data misuse, the company, late in the day, announced a bounty program to report user data abuse.
In the five-hour-long testimonial, Mr Zuckerberg answered hundreds of questions from the Senate Commerce and Judiciary Committees on how Facebook is handling privacy, protecting its user data, the Facebook regulations and obviously what connection the company had with the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Mark Zuckerberg did his best to testify in front of Congress that Facebook is safe and admitted to their mistake. Later, Facebook announced a Data Abuse Bounty program, which will now reward users who will report any if any apps are found to misuse data.
How Does Facebook’s Data Abuse Bounty Program Work?
If you have a proof or any first-hand knowledge that an app on the social networking site is violating the terms of service, you can directly report it to Facebook now and get a reward if it turns out to be true.
If you find an app on Facebook to be collecting data and transferring it to another party, whether for money or political influence or any scam, you can notify Facebook through the Data Abuse Bounty program.
If it is found to be true, Facebook will straightaway shut down the app and will take legal action against the offending app for abusing user data. The person reporting this abuse to Facebook can get a reward that could be as high as $40,000 (Rs 26 lakh approximately). The bounties start at $500 (Rs. 32,500) and will be awarded if certain conditions are met.
What Action Will Facebook Take?
When you report a case of misuse of data to Facebook, the company will investigate and go through all the details and submitted evidence. The app will be vetted by the bug and data abuse bounty team, and Facebook will investigate the report and will accordingly decide what action to take.
Among the possible call-to-actions, Facebook will consider shutting down the app, taking a legal action against the data leaker, conduct an onsite audit of the company and will securitize the app to check whether any data was sold or bought.
As per the blog post, the company currently has 10 people on the bug bounty team. But Facebook plans to hire more members and involve other teams who will scrutinize and investigate the reports and claims.
Facebook’s Data Abuse Bounty Program – Eligibility Conditions
Your claim needs to meet certain conditions mentioned in the Facebook bounty program before you can submit your evidence ·
- To be eligible for the Facebook’s Data Abuse Bounty Program, your case must have at least 10,000 affected Facebook users.
- Clear presentation of how the user data was abused on the third party application, and not just collected.
- If it is found that Facebook is already aware of that specific issue of data collection, the claim will be rejected.
- Apps which scrape data or use malware to get people to install apps or from a non-Facebook platform, such claims are not eligible.
- To report a bug, users must have first-hand knowledge and evidence on how an app is collecting and transferring user data to another party to be sold, stolen or used for scams.
Mark Zuckerberg again today will face questions regarding the Cambridge Analytica issue before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
