Facebook reveals data scraping as scandal hits millions more users

Last month we revealed 50 million Facebook profiles could have been harvested by Cambridge Analytica, the political strategists who boasted of helping Donald Trump become president.

Now Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg has admitted that figure could be 87 million, and also – every single user – that is roughly 2.2 billion people – could have had their data “scraped off” by third parties.
In the UK the Information Commissioner announced that thirty organisations, including Facebook, are being investigated over the use of data for political purposes. In the US Mark Zuckerburg said that he remains the best person to run Facebook – and he’s the man coming to Washington next week to explain his company’s mishandling of users’ information – so he remains the public face of this scandal that seems to get worse by the day.

Facebook has been forced to move from denial to damage control in the space of just over a week, but even as Mark Zuckerberg is making these statements to re-assure users of the network about the changes they’re making, he’s also trying to send safe signals to the market, that these changes won’t impact the company’s bottom line – and that’s a very fine line to tread.