About 87 mn users’ data may have been improperly shared: Facebook

TIL Desk/World/San Francisco/ Personal information of about 87 million users, mostly in the United States, may have been improperly shared with the United Kingdom-based political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, Facebook has said as it announced a slew of measures to address its users’ privacy concerns.

Over half a million of the users whose personal data might have been compromised are from India. This is a much larger figure than the previously believed 50 million users of Facebook whose personal data was improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica.

Facebook is facing a severe crisis of credibility ever since the news broke out that it improperly shared personal information of its users that was used for political purposes.

“In total, we believe the Facebook information of up to 87 million people — mostly in the US — may have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica,” Mike Schroepfer, chief technology officer, Facebook, said as he updated users on the changes the social network is making to better protect their information.

As per a table of compromised users, most of the personal information that may have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica are from the US — 70.8 million or 81 per cent. Indonesia and the United Kingdom stand a distant second with 1.1 million users’ data being compromised. India ranks seventh wherein information of 562,455 of its users may have been compromised.