Facebook notification sent to every user revealing if data was shared with Cambridge Analytica - how to check

Facebook releases tool to let users see if they were caught up in data abuse scandal

Billions of Facebook users are set to be alerted about potential data abuse (Reuters)

Facebook has begun sending out an alert to every one of its billions of users about potential data abuse.

The warning comes in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal that saw personal information improperly used for political purposes.

All of Facebook’s 2.2 billion users will eventually receive an alert at the top of their newsfeeds, which will warn them that apps and websites could be taking their data. Some 87 million of those people received an extra notification, showing their data was harvested by the UK data firm.

A Facebook spokesperson told The Independent that the full roll-out for alerts will happen gradually, however there is an online tool that allows users to check if their data has been compromised.

By visiting Facebook's Help Centre, users will be informed about whether or not their information was shared with Cambridge Analytica.

Facebook’s privacy settings meant that Cambridge Analytica was able to gather the personal data of people who had taken an online personality quiz called ‘This Is Your Digital Life’. Around 270,000 people took the quiz, but in doing so they also exposed the data from all of their contacts.

The data was subsequently used by Cambridge Analytica to target Facebook users with political propaganda during both the 2016 US presidential elections and the UK’s referendum to leave the EU.

Facebook revealed last week that more than 1 million people in the UK had their data “improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica,” while more than 70 million people in the US had their data exposed.

People whose data was abused received the message: “We have banned the website ‘This Is Your Digital Life,’ which one of your friends used Facebook to log into. We did this because the website may have misused some of your Facebook information by sharing it with a company called Cambridge Analytica.”

More information about how the data was used was included in a link titled: “See how you’re affected.”

The message concludes: “There is more work to do, but we are committed to confronting abuse and to putting you in control of your privacy.”

Those whose data was not misused by Cambridge Analytica received a message that stated: “We understand the importance of keeping your data safe, and are making it easier for you to control which apps you share information with.”

Instructions were also provided to help identify which apps and websites may have access to their personal information.