More Than 300,000 Aussie Facebook Users May Be Affected By Data Scandal

Social media giant comes clean


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Facebook will notify more than 300,000 Australian users next week that their personal information may have been improperly shared with third-party app Cambridge Analytica, as part of the mass data leak scandal.

Starting on April 9, all users across the globe will see a link at the top of their News Feed that enables you to see what apps you use and the information you have shared with those apps, along with revealing if your account's information was misused. You'll also have the choice to remove apps you no longer want.

The social media giant has also revealed the number of users whose information was improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica was millions more than they previously estimated. Facebook initially believed about 50 million were affected, but in a lengthy post from CTO Mike Schroepfer on Wednesday, he revealed the data leak affected up to 87 million people, mostly in the US.

Cambridge Analytica worked for US President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign and gathered data through a personality test app, called 'This Is Your Digital Life'. Despite fewer than 200,000 users downloading the app, it gained access to the profiles of participants' friends.

Among Facebook's other changes to make sure another major leak doesn't happen, they're cutting third-party access to the member lists for groups and the personal information attached to posts in those groups.

"We will also no longer allow apps to ask for access to personal information such as religious or political views, relationship status and details, custom friends lists, education and work history, fitness activity, book reading activity, music listening activity, news reading, video watch activity, and games activity. In the next week, we will remove a developer’s ability to request data people shared with them if it appears they have not used the app in the last 3 months," Schroepfer said in the post.

Boss Mark Zuckerberg will testify the matter for the first time before US Congress next week. 

Amy Drew

4 April 2018

Article by:

Amy Drew




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