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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Over 350 illegal religious structures removed along Nepal border
Lucknow, May 11 (PTI): The Uttar Pradesh government on Sunday said that more than 350 unauthorised religious sites, including madrasas, mosques, mazars and Eidgahs, have been identified and subjected to sealing or demolition in recent days, an official statement issued here said.
Acting on Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's clear directive that no religious encroachment will be tolerated, the administration in districts such as Pilibhit, Shravasti, Balrampur, Bahraich, Siddharthnagar and Maharajganj has launched a sweeping campaign, it said.
The authorities have systematically identified illegal structures and taken strict action, continuing operations even on Sunday.
The chief minister has made it clear that encroachment in the name of any religion will not be allowed and all violators, especially those running unrecognised religious institutions, will face legal consequences, the statement said.
On May 10 and 11, 104 madrasas, one mosque, five mazars and two Eidgahs built illegally on public and private land were identified in Shravasti. All were issued notices and sealed, it said.
One illegal madrasa on public land was demolished and two unrecognized madrasas on private land were sealed, the statement added.
In Bahraich, officials identified 13 madrasas, eight mosques, two mazars and one Eidgah illegally constructed on government land.
After issuing notices, five were sealed and 11 were demolished, including eight madrasas, two mosques and one mazar, the statement said.
In Siddharthnagar, the authorities identified four mosques and 18 madrasas and one more madrasa for illegal construction. Notices were issued to these structures. Five madrasas were sealed and nine were demolished. In total, action was taken against 23 illegal structures in the district, it said.
In Maharajganj’s Nautanwa tehsil, Parsamalik village, an unrecognized madrasa operating on Maktab land was shut down based on a report submitted by the District Minority Welfare Officer.
The building’s keys were handed over to the local police station in-charge. So far, 29 madrasas and five mazars constructed through encroachment on public and private land have been demolished in the district.
In past two days in Lakhimpur Kheri, two mosques, one Eidgah on public land along with eight madrasas on private land were found to be illegally constructed.
Of the 13 structures identified, one was served a notice, nine were sealed and three have been demolished so far, the statement said.
The district authorities in Pilibhit have identified an illegal mosque built on public land in Bharatpur village, covering an area of 0.0310 hectares.
According to the district magistrate, a notice has been issued to the parties involved, seeking a response within 15 days. Action against the illegal construction will be taken after the notice period ends, it said.
On Sunday, an under-construction madrasa on public land in Virpur Semra village, Tulsipur tehsil, was demolished in Balrampur. So far, 30 madrasas, 10 mazars and one Eidgah have been demolished in the district.
Ten of them were built illegally on public land, while 20 were constructed without authorization on private land, the statement said.
