Cambridge Analytica obtained the data of an estimated 50 million users in 2014 and 2015 under false pretenses, breaking Facebook’s rules. Third-party apps could access data on Facebook users and their friends until 2015, when Facebook changed its rules. Zuckerberg said in interviews Wednesday that the company is investigating reports that independent researchers and dark-web data brokers are trading user data grabbed by the firm Cambridge Analytica. [Facebook’s rules for accessing user data lured more than just Cambridge Analytica]It’s unclear how Facebook would know how to find or recover users’ data. The data taken by the researcher Aleksandr Kogan, who provided it to Cambridge Analytica, “wasn’t watermarked in any way,” Zuckerberg told Wired.

Source: Washington Post March 22, 2018 18:48 UTC