Pointing the finger at their contractors is an easy way for Facebook to shift blame. They knew what was going on. And they eagerly participated on their side of the deal.
One bad actor screwed everyone.
I'm surprised at how few people on hackernews have ever built or worked with apis.
Facebook essentially built an open platform and now they are being punished for it because people are too stupid to understand what they are signing up for.
The Facebook API needs special quarantine whenever I work with it. To protect my users.
The Facebook permissions when granting a third party app access to your data couldn't be more clear
And since the article is called "What Data Does Facebook Collect When I’m Not Using Facebook?" I'd like to point out that I never agreed to Facebook tracking my browsing habits. I couldn't say they were clear and forthcoming about their tracking because we never met. Are you saying they wouldn't do it without my explicit permission? Because that would be news.