'Outrageous abuse of privacy': New York orders inquiry into Facebook data use

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. 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".