It first broke out in the news that Cambridge Analytica, a political research firm, stole the data of 50 million Facebook users. The number has been upped in recent week, mounting to 87 million, and in response to the data breach, Facebook has planned to notify its users whose data were mined.
The social network will be pushing a privacy settings notification to its 2.2 billion users, and through the notification, you would be able to determine if you were affected by the data breach. The notification would come in two different forms; see the image below for reference.
The notification on the left with GO TO APPS AND WEBSITES is what you would receive if you aren’t affected by the data breach. However, If Cambridge Analytica were able to extract your Facebook data, you would see the notification in the image on the right hand. Tap on the option that says SEE HOW YOU’RE AFFECTED to see the amount of your data carted away by Cambridge Analytica.
As I had stated in my post on how to stop Facebook from tracking your online activities, Cambridge Analytica wasn’t the only firm stealing Facebook users data. In fact, Facebook has uncovered more firms involved in the act and has banned CubeYou and AggregateIQ, which are as well analytical companies.
According to reports, the countries most affected by this Facebook data breach are the United States, the United Kingdom, Indonesia and the Philippines. Only little data were scooped from Africa and other countries; however, whether you live in the main affected countries or not, it is advisable you update your privacy settings when you get either of the notifications.
Doing that would help protect your Facebook data against future occurrence.
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