Facebook users to find out if their personal information was shared

Photo courtesy CBC.

Starting Monday, Facebook is letting its users know if personal data was shared without their consent after announcing the extent of a privacy breach last week.

Facebook said information from 87-million users around the world was shared with Cambridge Analytica, with the majority in the United States.

Facebook said data from 622,161 Canadians was shared without authorization.

Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting company, is accused of using the information of 50 million Facebook users to help Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

The social-media company announced last week it was making changes to restrict data access and to better protect users’ information.

In damage-control mode from the privacy scandal, Facebook is giving about 2.2 billion users access to a link that will allow people to see what apps they use and the information that was shared with those apps.

Facebook is in the middle of a government report that Russia tried to influence the U.S. election by using the social media platform.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the company is forming independent research commission to look into the effects of social media on elections and democracy.

Editorial Policies Report an Error