> First, we will investigate all apps that had access to large amounts of information before we changed our platform to dramatically reduce data access in 2014, and we will conduct a full audit of any app with suspicious activity. We will ban any developer from our platform that does not agree to a thorough audit.
I remember the old days of the graph API - there was a whole lot you could do with someone's account, and it was common for users, especially non technical users to blindly hit accept on the permissions screens. If I'm not mistaken, you could even make a developer account without a verified phone number at the time.
I don't think banning some of those apps is any kind of consolation really. The API sat like that for years. Anyone with nefarious motives already took what they wanted and ran. What repercussions will they face? The will be banned from Facebook? The apps are probably long gone. There was a time when Facebook apps were at their peak, that fad died off. The data is probably sitting in a database somewhere today. If I'm not mistaken, Facebook Games could still grab the friend list permission until quite recently.
Also what authority does Facebook have to do any kind of audit? How would that audit even work? If someone copies all the data to an external drive and locks it up, what will the audit reveal? "Yep there's no data here, pinky swear!"
The basic premise of Facebook is flawed. If your private thoughts or photos are posted on a platform where you don't control the data, the data is never safe. A good product that serves the user faithfully and takes this into account is probably closer to a decentralized product - maybe something like Mastodon (I haven't looked into it in much detail). Facebook has already acquired the users - if they can figure out a way to make money and switch to a decentralized model at the same time, they can solve this once and for all. They would arguably even gain users who would now have a reason to trust their service.