As fallout continues from the theft of personal Facebook information at the hands of Cambridge Analytica, many are wondering how to know if their data was stolen. Nearly 87 million people had their personal Facebook data stolen by the political Research group Cambridge Analytica. USA Today has reported that Facebook has now begun notifying users whose information was taken by Cambridge Analytica. Nearly 70 million are living in the U.S., while the others are in the United Kingdom, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Facebook data
While your Facebook data might not have been used by Cambridge Analytica, it’s still a good time to change your privacy settings.
If your data was stolen by Cambridge Analytica, Facebook will send you a notice that says they banned a specific website that may have misused some of your personal data by sharing it with Cambridge Analytica. For those who were not taken advantage of by Cambridge Analytica, they will receive a notification that reminds them that they can go to the Apps and Websites section under settings and remove any that they no longer want.
Facebook has amassed over 2.2 billion users worldwide. Over the last few months Facebook has received harsh criticism after it was revealed that Cambridge Analytica received the private information of nearly 50 million users. Over the weekend, Facebook put a freeze on two research companies.
Facebook removed data analysis company CubeYou for misusing data it collected from their personality quizzes. The social media giant also kicked out the Canadian company AggregateIQ.
Facebook is losing prominent supporters
Over the next several days, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is scheduled to testify before two committees. On Tuesday, he will appear before the Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees.
On Wednesday he will then address the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
As Zuckerberg continues to face pressure over this latest crisis, top brands have bailed including Elon Musk and his Tesla company, and most recently, SpaceX. It was recently revealed that Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is leaving the social media platform.
According to an email sent to USA Today, Wozniak said that the profits are based on the user’s information, but they are not getting any of the profits back. As research firms continue to get booted from the social media platform, it’s clear that troubles for Facebook are just beginning. As users wake up to the reality of what is going on with their personal data, the tech industry could feel the shockwaves.
