Facebook scandal: 87 million users' data shared
‘it was people’s responsibility to decide how to use FB tools’: Zuckerberg
San Francisco: Facebook believes the data of up to 87 million people was improperly shared with the political consultancy Cambridge Analytica -- many more than previously disclosed.
The BBC has been told that about 1.1 million of them are UK-based.
The overall figure had been previously quoted as being 50 million by the whistleblower Christopher Wylie, BBC reported on Wednesday.
Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg said "clearly we should have done more, and we will be going forward".
During a press conference he said that he had previously assumed that if Facebook gave people tools, it was largely their responsibility to decide how to use them.
But he added that it was "wrong in retrospect" to have had such a limited view.
"Today, given what we know... I think we understand that we need to take a broader view of our responsibility, that we're not just building tools, but that we need to take full responsibility for the outcomes of how people use those tools as well," he said.
Zuckerberg also announced an internal audit had uncovered a fresh problem. Malicious actors had been abusing a feature that let users search for one another by typing in email addresses or phone numbers into Facebook's search box.
As a result, many people's public profile information had been "scraped" and matched to the contact details, which had been obtained from elsewhere.
"It is reasonable to expect that if you had that (default) setting turned on, that in the last several years someone has probably accessed your public information in this way," Zuckerberg said.
The estimates of how many people's data had been exposed were revealed in a blog by the tech firm's chief technology officer, Mike Schroepfer.
BBC has also learned that Facebook now estimates that about 305,000 people had installed the This Is Your Digital Life quiz that had made the data-harvesting possible. The previously suggested figure had been 270,000.
About 97 per cent of the installations occurred within the US. However, just over 16 million of the total number of users affected are thought to be from other countries.
Facebook has faced intense criticism after it emerged that it had known for years that Cambridge Analytica had collected data from millions of its users, but had relied on the London-based firm to self-certify that it had deleted the information.
Cambridge Analytica said it had bought the information from the creator of the This Is Your Digital Life app without knowing that it had been obtained improperly.
During Zuckerberg's press conference, Cambridge Analytica tweeted it had only obtained data for 30 million individuals -- not 87 million -- from the app's creator, and again insisted it had deleted all records.
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Will decide Congress leader Surjewala's plea for electoral rolls in 3 months: ECI to Delhi HC
New Delhi (PTI): The Delhi High Court was on Tuesday informed by the Election Commission of India that it would decide within three months a representation of Congress MP Randeep Singh Surjewala seeking the electoral rolls for elections held in Haryana and Maharashtra between 2009 and 2024.
Justice Jyoti Singh recorded the submission of the Election Commission of India (ECI) counsel who said since the details related to 2009, it would not be possible to logistically take an immediate decision and sought three months.
"Accordingly, this writ petition is disposed of without entering into the merits of the case by taking the stand of the ECI on record that the representation dated December 29, 2024 will be decided as expeditiously as possible and not later than three months from today," the court said.
Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Surjewala, submitted the ECI hadn't decide the December 29 2024 representation seeking supply of electoral rolls for the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections conducted in Haryana and Maharashtra between 2009 and 2024.
On February 24, 2025, said Singhvi, a letter was issued by the ECI addressed to the chief electoral officers of the respective states to decide the representation in accordance with law by passing a speaking order after affording an opportunity to the MP, if required.
But no time period to decide the representation was prescribed, the senior lawyer added.
On the court's query for a specific time limit, the ECI counsel said a decision would be taken as expeditiously as possible.
Singhvi then said, "The only reason I mentioned this was because it has taken them two months to reply to say that now we will reply. In two months time they have said that we will now take further time to reply. If that is their understanding of time limits as expeditiously as possible, then it might be like Alice in Wonderland's time limits."
Surjewala's plea said the ECI was expected to ensure utmost transparency in its functioning while being amenable to verification and accountability over the electoral process at any stage prior, during, or post the conclusion of elections.
"Thus, it is imperative that the Election Commission allows political parties to scrutinise the data collected by the commission over the years to ensure that there are no undiscovered discrepancies with the electoral process," it said.
