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pnwmom

(108,978 posts)
Tue Apr 10, 2018, 11:45 PM Apr 2018

How can I tell if my Facebook info was shared with Cambridge Analytica

through the app called "Digital Life"?

If you log into FB and go to this link, it will tell you whether your info went to Cambridge Analytica or not -- based on whether you or any of your friends used the app.

Among other things, C.A. even collected private inbox messages of some of those affected.




https://www.facebook.com/help/1873665312923476?ref=shareable



https://www.wired.com/story/cambridge-analytica-private-facebook-messages/

THE DATA CONSULTING firm Cambridge Analytica, which harvested as many as 87 million Facebook users' personal data, also could have accessed the private inbox messages of some of those affected. Facebook slipped this previously undisclosed detail into the notifications that began appearing at the top of News Feeds on Monday. These alerts let users know whether they or their friends had downloaded a personality quiz app called This Is Your Digital Life, which would have caused their data to be collected and potentially passed on to Cambridge Analytica.

Facebook buried the disclosure in the details about what information was compromised: "A small number of people who logged into 'This Is Your Digital Life' also shared their own News Feed, timeline, posts and messages which may have included posts and messages from you."

A Facebook spokesperson confirmed that the app, which was designed by Cambridge University researcher Aleksandr Kogan to collect data on Americans on behalf of Cambridge Analytica’s British counterpart SCL, requested access to user inboxes through the read_mailbox permission. Unlike the collection of specific user friend information, which Facebook says it phased out in April 2015 unless both people had downloaded the same app, the read_mailbox permission didn't fully deprecate until that October.

Users had to agree to give apps access to their inboxes, but that request for highly personal information would be bundled up with a list of other more benign data points, including birthdays or profile pictures. It's possible some users approved this access, never knowing how much of themselves they were giving up, not just to Cambridge Analytica, but to every app that requested these permissions until 2015.

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How can I tell if my Facebook info was shared with Cambridge Analytica (Original Post) pnwmom Apr 2018 OP
I didn't, but one of my friends did, evidently, and some of my info was shared. Ugh. n/t phylny Apr 2018 #1
K & R MagickMuffin Apr 2018 #2
That is beside the point blake2012 Apr 2018 #3
 

blake2012

(1,294 posts)
3. That is beside the point
Wed Apr 11, 2018, 12:20 AM
Apr 2018

CA wanted data on a cross section of potential voters. The damage this time isn’t a stolen SS#. It is a stolen election.

P.S. why would I continue to believe what Facebook says?

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