After facing criticism repeatedly for its privacy policies, Facebook has finally announced that it has restricted application program interface (API) access for hundreds of thousands of inactive apps in an effort to combat data theft and privacy abuse.

Ime Archibong, Facebook's VP of Product Partnerships, said in a blog post on Tuesday that the tech giant API access had been cut off for 'hundreds of thousands of inactive apps that have not submitted for our app review process'.

"Where we need more information, developers will have a limited amount of time to respond. If we don't hear back within that time frame, we will remove the app's access to APIs that require approval," Archibong's blog post says.

Earlier in May, Facebook had set a deadline of August 1, 2018. The company, which was once very open to developers until the Cambridge Analytica scandal, announced in May during F8 that it was tightening up the review process for apps.

Developers with existing apps on Facebook had received a deadline of August 1 to submit them for review under the revised process; otherwise they would be restricted from accessing the site's API. However, the developers will not lose their API access while they're being reviewed as long as they are complying with the company policies.