Is Facebook Trying to Come Clean by Notifying Millions of Users About Data Ingathered by Cambridge Analytica?
- Salman Ahmed
- April 9th, 2018
Facebook has started to send notifications to 87 million users globally of whether their personal data was ingathered by Cambridge Analytica.
After Facebook publicly admitted data theft, which fired up #deletefacebook campaign, millions of social media users are waiting for Facebook’s response that finally came today.
Facebook just start sending notifications to its users (2.2 billion) from Monday 17.00 BST. This notification appeared with the title “Protecting Your Information”. It provides access to what kind of personal data was extracted using those apps. BBC reporter, David Lee shared the notification on twitter:
Just waking up in the UK? From around noon you'll see one of these two messages when you go on Facebook. If you get the one on the right, it means you were one of the 1m-or-so British-based users apparently scooped up by Cambridge Analytica pic.twitter.com/HdGMOZn3iX
— Dave Lee (@DaveLeeBBC) April 9, 2018
Mostly, users will get a short notification, while 87 million users who have had their data ingathered by Cambridge Analytica will get a detailed notification saying:
Through this notification, Facebook is providing opportunities to disable third-party apps that could gather your information.
What’s sad to see is that no action was taken by Facebook in late 2015, although the organization was aware of Cambridge Analytica activities.
The personality assessment app used to collect user data was known as “This is your Digital Life”. It was created by Cambridge University Professor Aleksandr Kogan, who was appointed by Cambridge Analytica in 2014.
During a recent interview with the Cambridge Analytica whistleblower, Christopher Wylie revealed that it is possible that the actual number of affected users could be more than 87 million.
Finally, Facebook is showing some response and we hope that it will take further action to limit these kinds of data ingathered activities by different organizations. But the question remains the same, how will Facebook regain the trust of its users? Or this is the end of Facebook’s era?