Cracking down on Facebook app developers who were caught sharing user IDs to advertisers, the social networking site revealed a zero tolerance policy for data brokers, going so far as to ban offenders for half a year.

From Facebook’s Developer Blog update:

“While we determined that no private user data was sold and confirmed that transfer of these UIDs did not give access to any private data, this violation of our policy is something we take seriously. As such, we are taking action against these developers by instituting a 6-month full moratorium on their access to Facebook communication channels, and we will require these developers to submit their data practices to an audit in the future to confirm that they are in compliance with our policies.

This impacts fewer than a dozen, mostly small developers, none of which are in the top 10 applications on Facebook Platform. We have also reached an agreement with Rapleaf, the data broker who came forward to work with us on this situation. Rapleaf has agreed to delete all UIDs in its possession, and they have agreed not to conduct any activities on the Facebook Platform (either directly or indirectly) going forward.”

Given Facebook’s track record on privacy, the news shouldn’t exactly put you at ease. But at least the site is trying, or at least making it look that way.

An Update on Facebook UIDs [Facebook via Slashdot]

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