{"id":104584,"date":"2018-07-23T15:01:52","date_gmt":"2018-07-23T15:01:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sftarticles.wpenginepowered.com\/en\/?p=104584"},"modified":"2025-07-01T23:15:33","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T06:15:33","slug":"new-facebook-security-breach-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/new-facebook-security-breach-investigation\/","title":{"rendered":"Facebook posts: New Facebook security breach as more than 1 trillion posts compromised"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Facebook could have another Cambridge Analytica-type scandal on its hands<\/h2>\n<p>Yep, Facebook has just suspended another analytics firm, in a similar fashion to the way it eventually suspended Cambridge Analytica. Boston-based Crimson Hexagon, which <strong>has a link to a Russian nonprofit organization that has ties to the Kremlin<\/strong>, can no longer access Facebook and Instagram data. Crimson Hexagon already boasts a collection of an eye-watering <strong>1 trillion public social media posts.<\/strong> The suspension appears to be temporary.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_99642\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-99642\" style=\"width: 1280px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-99642 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/04\/facebook-257829_1280.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" srcset=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/04\/facebook-257829_1280.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/04\/facebook-257829_1280-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/04\/facebook-257829_1280-768x433.jpg 768w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/04\/facebook-257829_1280-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/04\/facebook-257829_1280-800x450.jpg 800w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/04\/facebook-257829_1280-664x374.jpg 664w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/04\/facebook-257829_1280-238x134.jpg 238w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/04\/facebook-257829_1280-436x246.jpg 436w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/04\/facebook-257829_1280-370x208.jpg 370w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/04\/facebook-257829_1280-304x170.jpg 304w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/04\/facebook-257829_1280-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-99642\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Facebook has been forced to suspend another data analyst firm while it investigates what the firm does with user&#8217;s data<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Facebook has been quick to say that, as yet, there is no reason to believe that Crimson Hexagon has done anything illegally. The suspension follows questions surrounding the firm&#8217;s connections to national governments in the US, Turkey, and Russia. There is a worry that the vast amounts of data Crimson Hexagon is collecting could be used for surveillance.<\/p>\n<p>Facebook has decided to look into the use of data further, saying:<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cWe don&#8217;t allow developers to build surveillance tools using information from Facebook or Instagram. We take these allegations seriously, and we have suspended these apps while we investigate.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Twitter recently blocked Crimson Hexagon due to concerns about what it does with user data. The Boston-based firm has responded, however, by saying that government contracts only form a tiny portion of their overall business and that if a government used the data for surveillance, it would be breaching Crimson Hexagon\u2019s terms. Chief Technical Officer Chris Bingham said:<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cCrimson Hexagon only allows government customers to use the platform for specific approved use cases, and under no circumstances is surveillance a permitted use case\u2026 The most common use cases are large scale public opinion research and measuring the success of their communication efforts. Each potential government customer must contractually commit, in writing, to the use cases that they will be utilizing the platform for in their agreements \u2026 No one using Crimson Hexagon would be able to learn anything about an individual that isn\u2019t already contained in publicly-available data.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey\">\r\n<p class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__title\">Facebook scandals<\/p>\r\n  <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__row\">\r\n    <a title=\"Facebook deliberately shared your data with 60 companies\" href=\"https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/facebook-shares-your-data\">\r\n    <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__article\">\r\n      <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__image\">\r\n        <div style=\"background-image:url(https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/06\/revised-image.png)\"><\/div>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__text\">\r\n        <p>Facebook deliberately shared your data with 60 companies<\/p>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n    <a title=\"Facebook banned\" href=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/05\/Facebook-banned-1024x576.jpg\">\r\n    <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__article sc-related-articles-grey__article--last\">\r\n      <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__image\">\r\n        <div style=\"background-image:url(https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/facebook-banned-papua-new-guinea)\"><\/div>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__text\">\r\n        <p>Facebook banned<\/p>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n  <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__row\">\r\n    <a title=\"Facebook suspends over 200 apps in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal\" href=\"https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/facebook-app-suspensions\">\r\n    <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__article\">\r\n      <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__image\">\r\n        <div style=\"background-image:url(https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/05\/facebook-spy-1024x576.jpg)\"><\/div>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__text\">\r\n        <p>Facebook suspends over 200 apps in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal<\/p>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n    <a title=\"Facebook deletes over 200 accounts and pages linked to Russian troll farm\" href=\"https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/facebook-deletes-over-200-accounts-and-pages\">\r\n    <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__article sc-related-articles-grey__article--last\">\r\n      <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__image\">\r\n        <div style=\"background-image:url(https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/04\/facebook-257829_1280.jpg)\"><\/div>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__text\">\r\n        <p>Facebook deletes over 200 accounts and pages linked to Russian troll farm<\/p>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n<p>Although the social media data Crimson Hexagon collects is public, government surveillance links provide a PR nightmare for Facebook. Zuckerberg\u2019s social network is still reeling from the Cambridge Analytica scandal. With other social networks like Twitter leading by example, and high-profile reports into Crimson Hexagon coming out in The Wall Street Journal Facebook had little choice but to act. So far, this is just a temporary suspension, so we\u2019ll have to wait and see what happens next with this one.<\/p>\n<!-- Shortcode [playwire] does not match the conditions -->\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Facebook could have another Cambridge Analytica type scandal on its hands<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9073,"featured_media":99642,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[1015],"tags":[1082,2353,1059,1083,1081,1035,1080],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-104584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-android","tag-app-subdomain-redirectionfacebook","tag-facebook","tag-ios","tag-mac","tag-social-media","tag-windows"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9073"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104584"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":327644,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104584\/revisions\/327644"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104584"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=104584"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=104584"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=104584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}