Up To 87 Million Now Affected In Facebook Privacy Scandal
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Facebook says as many as 87 million people may have had their data accessed in the Cambridge Analytica scandal — an increase from the 50 million disclosed in published reports.
Cambridge Analytica, a data-mining firm affiliated with President Donald Trump's campaign, has been accused of using ill-gotten data from Facebook users to try to influence elections.
This coming Monday, all Facebook users will receive a notice on their Facebook feeds with a link to see what apps they use and what information they have shared with those apps. They'll have a chance to delete apps they no longer want.
Users who had their data shared with Cambridge Analytica will be told of that within that notice. Facebook says most of the affected users are in the U.S.
The data grab has led some companies and celebrities to abbandon the social media platform, including Playboy and Will Ferrell.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted last month that mistakes had been made and outlined steps to protect user data better after news broke about the data-mining.
"We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can't then we don't deserve to serve you," Zuckerberg posted on Facebook. "The good news is that the most important actions to prevent this from happening again today we have already taken years ago. But we also made mistakes, there's more to do, and we need to step up and do it."
The Federal Trade Commission is investigating data firm Cambridge Analytica about accusations it improperly accessing the personal information of millions of users. A former employee claims the company access the data without the users' knowledge.
Facebook's new privacy policy aims to explain the data it gathers on users more clearly — but doesn't actually change what it collects and shares.
The company unveiled revisions Wednesday, including these changes: Facebook has added a section explaining that it collects people's contact information, which may include call logs and text histories. The previous policy did not mention call logs or text histories. Several users were surprised to learn recently that Facebook had been collecting such data.
(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)