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Facebook's new 'Data Abuse Bounty' pays members who report apps that misuse data

By Alan Friedman

Published: Apr 10, 2018, 11:41 PM

Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared before a Senate committee hearing yesterday, and was able to show that these mostly older lawmakers have no idea what Facebook is and how it makes money. The executive appears before a House committee later today. Meanwhile, on Tuesday Facebook introduced a new 'Data Abuse Bounty' that will pay cash money to users who find apps on Facebook that collect and transfer "people’s data to another party to be sold, stolen or used for scams or political influence."

While Facebook didn't reveal the cash bounty that users will receive for turning in the names of these apps, the social network has paid out as much as $40,000 for the bounty program it ran to find bugs. To qualify for the bounty payment, the following conditions must be adhered to:

(The app in question) must have more than 10,000 Facebook users.
(There must be a) definitive abuse of data. Not just collection.
(It must be) a case we were not already aware of or actively investigating.

Explicitly out of scope scenarios:

Scraping.
Malware or mass-scale tricking of users to install apps.
Scenarios where social engineering is a major component.
Non-Facebook cases (ex: Instagram).

"We determine bounty amounts based on a variety of factors, including (but not limited to) impact, data exposure, number of affected users and other factors. We aim to pay similar amounts for similar issues, but bounty amounts and qualifying issues may change over time. Past rewards do not necessarily guarantee similar results in the future. In the event of duplicate reports, we award a bounty to the first person to submit an issue. (Facebook determines duplicates and may not share details on the other reports.) A given bounty is only paid to one individual."-Facebook

Facebook says that you must give the company a reasonable amount of time to investigate and act on an issue before going public with the information, or sharing it with others. The company stresses that you should not turn over information to them that you acquired illegally.

You can check out all of the terms of the "Data Abuse Bounty" by clicking on the sourcelink.

source: Facebook

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Alan, an ardent smartphone enthusiast and a veteran writer at PhoneArena since 2009, has witnessed and chronicled the transformative years of mobile technology. Owning iconic phones from the original iPhone to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, he has seen smartphones evolve into a global phenomenon. Beyond smartphones, Alan has covered the emergence of tablets, smartwatches, and smart speakers.

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Facebook's new 'Data Abuse Bounty' pays members who report apps that misuse data

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