Facebook – Cambridge Analytica Scandal Update

Facebook has always been a favorite place to hang out. Every time i'm free and have access to my phone; Facebook is the first thing i reach out to. I won't say i'm addicted to it but with time it has become one of my favorite pass time.

Recently the social media site is making headlines for Facebook – Cambridge Analytica scandal which actually makes me think if its app is really worth-full to be left on phone.

What Really Happened?
The London Observer and The New York Times reported that UK-based data firm Cambridge Analytica acquired millions of Facebook users' personal information to build software that could target potential swing voters in political campaigns, including US President Donald Trump's 2016 election bid.

It bought data of 50 million Facebook users from Alexander Kogan, who had obtained it using the personality quiz app he had created in 2014. If this was not enough then there are reports where in facebook was collecting voice data from app users to push advertising.

Current Situation?
Analytica said on March 17 it deleted all data received from Kogan's company, Global Science Research (GSR), when it found out it had not been obtained in line with Facebook’s policies.

"No data from GSR was used by Cambridge Analytica as part of the services it provided to the Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign," it said.

What did Facebook do?

Facebook rejected any claims of data breach. "People knowingly passed their information, no systems were infiltrated, and no passwords or sensitive information were stolen or hacked," it said in a statement.

Policies allowed collection of friends' data by app creators and academics, though selling this data to third parties or using it for advertising was not prohibited.

What really amazes here is that Facebook got to know about this in 2015 when the data was passed on to Cambridge Analytica. In the March 16 statement, the social media company said it had been assured then that Cambridge Analytica, Kogan, and Wylie had deleted the data.

Kogan's app was removed from Facebook in 2015, but the social media giant didn't suspend Cambridge Analytica and SCL Group - the firm that serviced contracts won by Cambridge Analytica and was called "effectively a shell" - until March 16, four days after the Observer contacted Facebook for comment.

Zuckerberg has since apologized for what he called a "breach of trust" in full-page newspaper ads in several UK and US newspapers.

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