Facebook Inc confirmed on Wednesday that the scale of the data leaks of personal information of its users with political analyst firm Cambridge Analytica is estimated at around 87 million people, a considerable increase from the 50 million people reported earlier. Most of the users whose data has been breached are from the US.
From April 9, Facebook said that it would tell people through a notice at the top of their news feeds if their information may have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica.
Facebook made the announcements along with an update of privacy policy which aims to explain to users more clearly on the data that it collects, without actually changing the collected data.
In the recent update, Facebook explained that it collects people's contact information if they choose to "upload, sync or import" this to the service, which may include users' address books on their phones as well as call logs and text histories. Previously, the privacy policy had not mentioned that Faceboook could access call logs or text histories.
The new policy claims that Facebook may use this data to help "you and others find people you may know." The new release also clarifies that WhatsApp and Instagram are a part of Facebook and follow the same privacy policy, which was not mentioned earlier.
Facebook landed in controversy last month after it was revealed that British firm Cambridge Analytica had obtained personal data of 50 million Facebook users to influence the US Presidential elections. Subsequently, Cambridge Analytica was also accused of influencing Indian politics and elections for political parties in Brazil and Kenya.
Source: newsworldindia.in