We all know how big a role social media plays in people’s lives. Billions of us consider Google, Facebook and Twitter, to name three of the biggest social media platforms, as integral parts of our day-to-day lives. Until 2015, Facebook had allowed third-party app developers to easily extract personal data from both app users and their online friends. Before that policy was changed, a Cambridge University researcher, using an app, obtained the personal data of more than 50 million Americans, later improperly providing it to Cambridge Analytica. Facebook and the other social media giants want to be left to self-regulate to stop such activity.

Source: National Post March 23, 2018 08:03 UTC