78million people are reported to have been involved in the Cambridge Analytica scandal
Mark Zuckberger has told US Senators that his own personal data was passed on to third parties during the Cambridge Analytica scandal. He revealed this information on the second day of his congressional hearing.
Representative Anna Eshoo, who was reading questions from her constituents in Silicon Valley, asked the Facebook CEO whether he was one of the 87million people whose data was acquired by the analysis firm.
“Was your data included in the data sold to the malicious third parties…your personal data?” Eshoo asked.
“Yes”, Zuckerberg replied.
It is not yet clear whether Zuckerberg was referring to the “thisisyourdigitallife” quiz that was at the heart of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, or some other third-party breach. The quiz was created by Cambridge academic Aleksandr Kogan, and Facebook users were paid to partake in it. At the time of the quiz’s release, Facebook’s data rules permitted the firm to have access to not just the personal information of everyone who took part, but their friends’ information too.
The vast majority of the 87million people involved in the scandal are thought to be based in the United States, with just a million based in the United Kingdom.
Zuckerberg’s two day congressional hearing has now been concluded.
