Facebook Says Cambridge Analytica May Have 'Improperly' Accessed Personal Data of 87 Million Users

Data firm could have scraped 'most' public profiles

British data firm Cambridge Analytica may have used the personal information of as many as 87 million Facebook users, according to the social platform.

“Given the scale and sophistication of the activity we’ve seen, we believe most people on Facebook could have had their public profile scraped in this way,” Facebook chief technology officer Mike Schroepfer wrote in a blog post published today.

Schroepfer revealed the updated total—which is mostly composed of people in the U.S.—at the bottom of a post that outlines how the company is addressing its plans to restrict data access from third-party apps.

The number is much higher than the 50 million user total reported last month by The New York Times and The Guardian.

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