New Facebook Safeguard

Facebook  is scrambling to add safeguards against

abuse of user data as it reels from backlash over the

Cambridge Analytica scandal. Now TechCrunch has

learned Facebook will launch a certification tool that

demands that marketers guarantee email addresses

used for ad targeting were rightfully attained. This new

Custom Audiences certification tool was described by

Facebook representatives to their marketing clients,

according to two sources. Facebook will also prevent

the sharing of Custom Audience data across Business

accounts.

This snippet of a message sent by a Facebook rep to a

client notes that “for any Custom Audiences data

imported into Facebook, Advertisers will be required to

represent and warrant that proper user content has been

Obtained.”

Once shown the message, Facebook spokesperson

Elisabeth Diana told TechCrunch “I can confirm there is a

permissions tool that we’re building.” It will require that

advertisers and the agencies representing them pledge

that “I certify that I have permission to use this data”, she

Said.

Diana noted that “We’ve always had terms in place to

ensure that advertisers have consent for data they use but

we’re going to make that much more prominent and

educate advertisers on the way they can use the data.”

The change isn’t in response to a specific incident, but

Facebook does plan to re-review the way it works with

third-party data measurement firms to ensure everything

is responsibly used. This is a way to safeguard data” Diana

concluded.The company declined to specify whether it’s ever

blocked usage of a Custom Audience because it suspected

the owner didn’t have user consent. ”

The social network is hoping to prevent further misuse of ill-

gotten data after Dr. Aleksandr Kogan’s app that pulled data

on 50 million Facebook users was passed to Cambridge

Analytica  in violation of Facebook policy. That sordid data is

suspected to have been used by Cambridge Analytica to

support the Trump and Brexit campaigns, which employed

Custom Audiences to reach voters.