Tech your username February 19, 2021 On Thursday, the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) issued a report on the findings of its investigation into Facebook following a Wall Street Journal article, which prompted New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo to direct the DFS to investigate the “transmission of sensitive user data by application and website designers to Facebook.” The report reveals that the investigation discovered that app developers regularly send Facebook sensitive data, such as medical and personal data, which comes from individuals using third-party apps and websites, as part of Facebook’s free online data analytics services. The DFS noted that this aforementioned data sharing violates Facebook policy, however, “Facebook took few steps to enforce the policy or to block the flow of sensitive data prior to the state’s investigation.” Specifically, Facebook often had consumer data shared to it by app developers who downloaded Facebook’s Software Development Kit in connection with its free online data analytics services. This personal data included sensitive or medical data like health diagnoses, blood pressure numbers, and fertility data. For example, fertility app Flo Health was sued over this conduct by a consumer and has also settled with the FTC for sharing consumers’ sensitive health data with Facebook and other third-parties.