Fedica (@fedica.com)

We've been doing social media analytics for well over a decade, no other social media platform provided public age data per account like this Facebook has user_birthday but users must authorize the app to read their own data, not of any account! Have we not learned anything from Cambridge Analytica

Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal

The data was collected through an app called "This Is Your Digital Life", developed by data scientist Aleksandr Kogan and his company Global Science Research in 2013.[2] The app consisted of a series of questions to build psychological profiles on users, and collected the personal data of the users' Facebook friends via Facebook's Open Graph platform.[2] The app harvested the data of up to 87 million Facebook profiles.[2] Cambridge Analytica used the data to analytically assist the 2016 presidential campaigns of Ted Cruz and Donald Trump.[3][4] Cambridge Analytica was also widely accused of interfering with the Brexit referendum, although the official investigation recognised that the company was not involved "beyond some initial enquiries" and that "no significant breaches" took place.[5][6]

The Digital Loophole: 11th International Conference on Information Systems Security and Privacy, ICISSP 2025

Social media platforms are an integral part of daily life for nearly five billion people worldwide. However, the growing presence of underage users on these platforms raises significant concerns regarding children’s exposure to harmful content and its impact on their mental health. This paper examines the effectiveness of age verification measures implemented on leading platforms Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and X. We evaluate the age verification processes required for account creation by simulating the registration steps for minors on these platforms. We also compare these methods to best practices in online age assurance in finance, betting and public transportation sectors. IEEE provides a standard for evaluating the age assurance of a platform or service. Our study benchmarks each platform’s approach against the IEEE standard for robustness. Our research identifies gaps that allow underage users to easily bypass existing age restrictions, with particular practices such as allowing disposable emails and basic browser refreshes further weakening self-declared age checks. The findings highlight the need for more robust age verification measures by social media applications to support their stated age limit policies. This work emphasises the urgent need for stronger and more reliable age verification methods to align the digital age of consent across EU member states and beyond with the minimum age requirements on social media.

Facebook Data Privacy Scandal: A Cheat Sheet - TechRepublic

Read about the saga of Facebook's failures in ensuring privacy for user data, including how it relates to Cambridge Analytica, the GDPR, the Brexit campaign, and the 2016 US presidential election.

Hack of Age Verification Company Shows Privacy Danger of Social Media

We’ve said it before: online age verification is incompatible with privacy. Companies responsible for storing or processing sensitive documents like drivers’ licenses are likely to encounter data

Social media companies are fighting the 'age verification trap' as collecting biometrics on kids violates privacy rights | Fortune

Big Social is reaching its Big Tobacco moment as it regulations intensify and social media companies look to implement age verification methods on its platforms.

Analytics on the Open Social Web • RocheBit

I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about analytics on the open social web. I would love to hear how others approach this topic, and share my own perspective.

Facebook-Cambridge Analytica: A timeline of the data hijacking scandal

Facebook is desperately trying to mend its damaged reputation following the continued fallout of a massive data scandal.

What to Know About the E.U.’s New Age Verification App for Social Media

The E.U.’s new age verification app aims to address concerns raised by tech platforms around privacy and enforcement.

Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica problems are nothing compared to what’s coming for all of online publishing

Let’s start with Facebook’s Surveillance Machine, by Zeynep Tufekci in last Monday’s New York Times. Among other things (all correct), Zeynep explains that “Facebook makes m…

Facebook may stop the data leaks, but it’s too late: Cambridge Analytica’s models live on

Long after the training data has been deleted, the models can continue being improved and used to influence future voters.

Age Verification and Age Gating: Resource Hub

Age verification (or age-gating) laws generally require online services to check, estimate, or verify all users’ ages—often through invasive tools like ID checks, biometric scans, or other dubious

“Age limits on social media are a dead end”

Public authorities should focus on regulating algorithms and imposing stricter controls on data collection instead, argues researcher.

The Age-Verification Trap

Platforms are caught in a dilemma: enforce age restrictions or protect user privacy. How are they navigating this tricky terrain?

The EU’s age verification app has a privacy problem — and it may be more than just a 'bug in an app'

It's an improvement compared to existing solutions, but security experts still aren't convinced