Source: LOIC VENANCE / Getty
Facebook is under intense scrutiny after it was revealed that political research firm Cambridge Analytica stole the data of roughly 87 million users. If you are worried/curious you are one of those people, Facebook will finally notify you via their platform.
It’s about time!
Now how in the world will Facebook let those 87 million know their data has been scraped by the research firm? The company that Zuckerberg built announced it will send a notification to the affected users that will live on the top of their Facebook newsfeed. A new button allowing those users to change their privacy settings will also appear along with the notification.
If you are fortunate enough that your data wasn’t stolen used to help get Trump elected it is still highly recommended that you update your privacy settings anyway.
Source: Facebook / Facebook
There are over 2.2 billion Facebook users around the world and the majority of them will receive the notification on the left pictured above. Those affected by the data theft will get the response on the right. This announcement follows the news that Mark Zuckerberg will be testifying in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Commerce Committee on Wednesday the 11th. The CEO has declined a similar request to personally testify on his company’s behalf in London from the British Government. Instead, he will be sending a well-trained employee to speak in his place.
Initially, it was reportedly 50 million users but that was later revised to 87 million. Facebook’s stock has since plunged 15 percent. A hashtag gained momentum on Twitter urging users to delete their accounts and some popular figures such as Elon Musk removed all of his company pages. Cambridge Analytica is the main culprit in this story but they are not the only ones who have been mishandling user data. We are interested in hearing what Mark Zuckerberg has to say in the wake of these revelations and to see if Facebook can weather the storm.
—
Photo: LOIC VENANCE / Getty/ Facebook
