Facebook to connect with 87mn users hit by data breach

New Delhi, April 9: Facebook will begin connecting with the 87 million users - including 562,455 in India - from Monday if their persol data was “improperly shared” with the British political consultancy firm Cambridge Alytica. Those affected by the data privacy breach will see a detailed message at the top of their news feeds. Apart from those affected, over 2 billion Facebook users will also see a link “at the top of their news feed so they can see what apps they use and the information they have shared”. The location of those affected has been identified. But Facebook said the location was “not an indication of voter registration, tiolity or citizenship and may not, in some cases, indicate actual place of residence”.

The social media giant informed the Indian government last week about the details of compromised accounts in response to a notice over the user data breach and details of the steps Facebook was taking to ensure safety and prevent misuse of persol data. A Facebook spokesperson said a possible breach of data of 562,455 users happened after 335 Facebook users in India installed a quiz app, “thisisyourdigitallife” between November 2013 and December 2015. The app, developed by University of Cambridge psychology researcher Aleksandr Kogan and his company Global Science Research, pulled out data of not only these 335 users but their friends as well as friends of friends also. (IANS)

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