Author: CECILIA KANG and SHEERA FRENKEL / Source: New York Times
WASHINGTON — Facebook said on Wednesday that the personal information of up to 87 million people, most of them Americans, may have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm connected to President Trump during the 2016 election.
The new figure, roughly equivalent to a quarter of the population of the United States, is substantially greater than the previous estimate of how many users’ information Cambridge Analytica harvested. The number had been put at more than 50 million users.
Facebook released the revised figure as part of an extended statement about changes it is making to how it handles personal data. The company said it would start telling users on April 9 about whether their information might have been shared with Cambridge Analytica.
“We wanted to put out the maximum number of people who could have been affected,” Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, said on a call with reporters.
Cambridge Analytica responded to Facebook’s revised estimate with a statement in which the firm said it had licensed data for no more than 30 million users of the social network, that none of the data had been used in the firm’s work on the 2016 election and that it believed at the time that the data had been legally obtained.
The sharing of user data has unleashed a torrent of criticism against Facebook, the world’s largest social network.
The company is under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission over whether it violated a 2011 agreement meant to protect users’ privacy.
Investors have been fleeing the company as well, with its stock falling sharply in recent weeks.Earlier on Wednesday, lawmakers in Washington said that Mr. Zuckerberg would testify before the House Energy and Committee on April 11 about the company’s handling of sensitive user data.
Mr. Zuckerberg is also expected to appear before at least one Senate committee next week.
“This hearing will be an important opportunity to shed light on critical consumer data privacy issues,” said Representatives Greg Walden, Republican of Oregon, and Frank Pallone, Democrat of New Jersey, of the House committee. “We appreciate Mr. Zuckerberg’s willingness to testify before the…
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