This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, has ordered two state agencies to investigate a media report that Facebook may be accessing far more personal information than previously known from smartphone users, including health and other sensitive data.

The directive to New York’s department of state and department of financial services (DFS) came after the Wall Street Journal said testing showed that Facebook collected personal information from other apps on users’ smartphones within seconds of them entering it.

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The WSJ reported that several apps share sensitive user data including weight, blood pressure and ovulation status with Facebook. The report said the company can access data in some cases even when the user is not signed into Facebook or does not have a Facebook account.

In a statement, Cuomo called the practice an “outrageous abuse of privacy”. He also called on the relevant federal regulators to become involved.

Facebook said in a statement it would assist New York officials in their investigation, but noted that the WSJ’s report focused on how other apps use people’s data to create ads.

“As [the WSJ] reported, we require the other app developers to be clear with their users about the information they are sharing with us, and we prohibit app developers from sending us sensitive data. We also take steps to detect and remove data that should not be shared with us,” the company said.

Shares in Facebook took a short-lived hit after the newspaper report was published, but closed up 1.2%.

In late January, Cuomo, along with the New York attorney general, Letitia James, announced an investigation into Apple’s failure to warn consumers about a FaceTime bug that had let iPhones users listen to conversations of others who have not yet accepted a video call.

Facebook is facing a slew of lawsuits and regulatory inquiries over privacy issues, including a US Federal Trade Commission investigation into disclosures that Facebook inappropriately shared information belonging to 87m users with the political consultancy Cambridge Analytica.

New York’s financial services department does not traditionally supervise social media companies directly, but has waded into digital privacy in the financial sector and could have oversight of some app providers that send user data to Facebook.