Facebook has filed two separate lawsuits against app developers in the US and the UK for violating its terms to collect and misuse user data.
“As part of our ongoing efforts to enforce our Terms of Service and protect against abuse, we filed separate lawsuits in the UK and the US,” Facebook announced in an official blog post.
This is the first time that the social media giant has sued a developer in the UK. Facebook Inc. and Facebook Ireland sued MobiBurn, OakSmart Technologies and its founder Fatih Haltas in the High Court of Justice after the company failed to comply with its audit request.
Facebook had requested for an audit after reports flagged MobiBurn for collecting user data from Facebook and other social media companies by paying app developers to install a malicious Software Development Kit (SDK) in their apps.
“When people installed those apps on their devices, MobiBurn collected information from the devices and requested data from Facebook, including the person’s name, time zone, email address and gender. MobiBurn did not compromise Facebook, instead they used the malicious SDK on the users’ devices to collect information,” Facebook said.
Facebook Inc and Instagram LLC in a separate lawsuit sued Nikolay Holper in federal court in San Francisco “for operating a fake engagement service known as Nakrutka.”
Holper has been accused of distributing fake likes, comments, views and followers on Instagram using a network of bots and automation software.
“He used different websites to sell fake engagement services to Instagram users. We previously disabled accounts associated with Holper and his service, formally warned him that he was in violation of our Terms, and sent a cease and desist letter,” Facebook clarified.