Here's how to check your Facebook to see if you're one of the millions of users affected by the Cambridge Analytica scandal (FB)

pulse

April 9, 2018 6:06 PM

Facebook is notifying users if they were among the 87 million people who could have had their personal information obtained by data firm Cambridge Analytica.

On Monday, Facebook started letting users know if they were among the as many as 87 million users whose data was obtained by political research firm Cambridge Analytica.
On the top of the news feed, users will see a notification indicating their data was "misused."
The notification comes days before Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is set to testify before Congress on Wednesday.

Facebook began notifying users this week if they were one of the as many as 87 million people whose data was obtained by the Trump-linked political research firm Cambridge Analytica.

When you log into Facebook, you'll will see one of two notifications at the top of the News Feed. If you don't see a notification, you can go to this link.

One notification will direct you to Facebook's privacy settings so you can see which third-party apps have access to information on your profile. The other says that your data was "misused" and shared with Cambridge Analytica.

If you get the latter notification, you're one of the 87 million users whose data was improperly obtained by Cambridge Analytica, the now-infamous political research firm which helped target ads for Donald Trump's successful 2016 presidential campaign.

"We have banned the website 'This Is Your Digital Life,' which one of your friends used Facebook to log into. We did this because the website may have misused some of your Facebook information by sharing it with a company called Cambridge Analytica," the notification reads.

The crux of the matter: Prior to changes made by Facebook in 2014, any app connected to the social network could gather up data not only from your public profile, but that of your friends.

"This Is Your Digital Life," an app created by a researcher, used this method to gather up data from as many as 87 million profiles — data that then made its way to Cambridge Analytica, in violation of Facebook's rules. The social network has been criticised for not taking action and notifying users sooner.

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