Facebook has been on the defensive for several weeks, after it was discovered that a company called Cambridge Analytica accessed the personal data of at least several tens of millions of people. Officially, 87 million people had their data accessed by Cambridge Analytica, 110.000 of them from Romania, but the number could be much higher, according to information that appeared last night, which is very worrying.
Facebook claims, for example, that 311.000 Australians had their data accessed by Cambridge Analytica after 53 people used an app that requested access to their personal data. From 53 people to 311.000 people is a very long way and this is because the Facebook application does not only access the data of those who used the application, but also the data of friends, but it is very possible that the access has extended beyond this simple link.
Facebook - the secret the company doesn't want you to know
Facebook also said that 63.700 people in New Zealand had their data accessed by Cambridge Analytica after only 10 used the company's app, and again the differences are huge. The numbers of people whose data was accessed by Cambridge Analytica, compared to those who used the Facebook application that asked for their data, is very high and raises questions about what has not yet been said.
"Only 53 Australians used a Facebook quiz app responsible for the Cambridge Analytica data breach, meaning the vast majority of 310,000 affected citizens did not directly consent to the harvesting of their personal details. 3 Australians used the quiz app. That means the vast majority of the 311,127 Australians affected were simply friends of others who had used the quiz app."
Facebook said that 87 million people are affected in this scandal, but it is possible that in reality the figure is hundreds of millions of people, and that is because every day we learn shocking things about the access that Cambridge Analytica had. To be completely honest, I think we'll never find out how big the problem is for those at Facebook and how many people are really affected by this scandal, so we just have to see what other revelations come out.
