Facebook Launches ‘Data Misuse Bounty’ With Rewards Upto $40,000

Facebook launched bounty program for reports of data misuse by app developers.

Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg. 

(Photo: iStock)

Facebook Inc said on Tuesday it is launching a "data abuse" bounty program to reward people who report misuse of data by app developers. The announcement noted that the bounty could be upto $40,000.

The program will reward people with first-hand knowledge and evidence of a Facebook platform app collecting and transferring user data to another party to be sold, stolen or used for scams or political influence.

The social media giant announced:

“This program will reward people with first-hand knowledge and proof of cases where a Facebook platform app collects and transfers people’s data to another party to be sold, stolen or used for scams or political influence. Just like the bug bounty program, we will reward based on the impact of each report. While there is no maximum, high impact bug reports have garnered as much as $40,000 for people who bring them to our attention.”

The announcement had come ahead of congressional hearings starting on Tuesday, where Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg where he was asked how up to 87 million Facebook users’ data was improperly shared with political consultancy Cambridge Analytica.

(With inputs from Reuters)