Was your Facebook data shared with Cambridge Analytica? The political research firm harvested the personal information of roughly 87 million people to target American voters, using a personality quiz called “This Is Your Digital Life” that scraped the Facebook data of you and your friends. The social network recently started notifying users who had their information scooped up.
If you haven’t seen the prompt in your News Feed, you can check if your Facebook data was shared with Cambridge Analytica by logging into the network and visiting this help page. The section titled “Was my information shared?” explains whether your or your friends ever logged into the nefarious quiz, though it won’t name which friends handed over your data to the app.
Brad Chacos/IDG
While you’re at it, take the time to look over the other apps that you’ve granted access to your Facebook account, and disable any ones you no longer need. The Cambridge Analytica saga drives home how crucial it is to keep close rein on apps that hook into your social media accounts. Securing your personal data is more complicated than just running an antivirus suite and using a password manager to come up with unique logins for every site. This revelation sparked big changes in the way Facebook handles third-party apps, including the launch of a new data abuse bounty, but it’s better to be proactive on your end.
Curious to see what Facebook itself knows about you? Check out our guide to downloading your Facebook data, and if you feel uncomfortable about what you find, here’s how to delete, disable, or limit your Facebook account.