Company misuses information for 50 million Facebook users
HOUSTON (FOX 26) - Some people have shut down their Facebook page after a major breach of information. Do you plan to close yours after millions of social media users had their data misused in connection with the 2016 presidential election?
The British Parliament has vowed to investigate, Congress is calling for Mark Zuckerberg to meet with them, and Facebook has ordered an audit of the data collection company Cambridge Analytica, which was hired by the Trump campaign. The company is said to have accessed and misused information from 50 million Facebook users in order to push political propaganda to voters.
Was your Facebook page one of the 50 million breached? There's plenty of controversy and questions after Cambridge Analytica, a data mining company affiliated with President Trump, used information from millions of Facebook users during the 2016 election.
”We have very different rules in the United States on how advertising should work for political campaigns versus how regular advertising for buying a car should work,” explains University of Houston Cyber Security Professor Chris Bronk.
According to a Cambridge Analytica former employee, the company took the Facebook data, learned all about voters and pushed information to people to change their perception of what was actually happening. He says the information sent to Facebook users wasn't necessarily true.
“What we have is a blurring of opinion versus fact. It used to be we could have different opinions but share the same set of facts,” Bronk adds.
”Social media is not designed to provide you accurate news,” says Houstonian Mark Swenson.
”I already tell myself, everything you read online isn't always true. You just have to be smart about it,” says Monica Coleman.
Facebook denies knowing the data was being used. “Misusing data is not surprising or allowing others to misuse it then pretending like 'oh no that's a surprise', come on. I don't buy that at all,” says Swenson.
“Facebook has become this very slick advertising company. It didn't use to be that way,” Bronk says.
“It upsets me but I'll be honest I'm not going to stop using Facebook. It's how I reach out to my family, my friends,” admits Coleman.
Facebook says the company obtained the info from a University of Cambridge professor who created an app that was supposed to be a personality quiz. 270,000 Facebook users downloaded it, allowing the app access to all of their friends, leading to the millions of people breached. You can control your Facebook apps by clicking settings, then apps.