Facebook Suspends Another Analytics Firm Over User Data Sharing – Reports

Facebook has suspended Crimson Hexagon consultancy over concerns its contracts with the US government to harvest and analyze users' public data violated its policies, local media said.

The social network came under scrutiny this year after a British-based firm, Cambridge Analytica, was found to have collected private details of millions of Facebook users for political profiling.

Facebook told the Wall Street Journal it would suspend the firm’s apps pending an investigation into how the Houston-based business collected, shares and stored user data.

According to the paper, Crimson Hexagon has had contracts over the years with the US Department of Homeland Security, including its Emergency Management Agency and the Secret Service, as well as with Russian nonprofits. Some of the contacts were not approved by Facebook in advance.

Facebook faced sharp criticism after it emerged in March that personal data of about 50 million of its users had been harvested by UK-based consulting firm Cambridge Analytica without their permission. The information was allegedly used to help target political advertising world wide. In early April, Facebook estimated the number of users affected at around 87 million.

The scandal around violation of data use led to the initiation of several investigations in the United States and the United Kingdom.