The video-sharing app Vine let users see which of their Facebook friends also used the app — until, Facebook cut off its competitor's access. Using an innocuous looking quiz and an accompanying Facebook app, a researcher named Aleksandr Kogan collected data from a staggering 50 million Facebook users on behalf of data analytics company Cambridge Analytica. All told, he was able to harvest data on 50 million Facebook users in a matter of weeks. The Observer and the New York Times characterize the data that was harvested and provided to Cambridge Analytica as a breach. The CEO of Cambridge Analytica, Alexander Nix, speaks during the Web Summit, Europe's biggest tech conference, in Lisbon, Portugal, Nov. 9, 2017.

Source: CBC News March 19, 2018 23:15 UTC