Yesterday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified for a joint hearing of two Senate committees about the Cambridge Analytica scandal and Facebook’s data privacy practices. Over 40 senators questioned Zuckerberg for more than five hours, but if you’re a Facebook user, you’re probably most interested in one question: “Am I one of the 87 million people whose personal information was shared in the Cambridge Analytica data breach?”
Last night, WatchGuard Information Security Threat Analyst Marc Laliberte addressed this question for KIRO 7, a local TV news station here in Seattle. Here’s an excerpt from their story explaining how to see if your data was included in the breach:
- To find out if you were affected, click on “Help and Support” in the Facebook mobile app, then “Help Center.”
- Search for “Cambridge,” and an option should come up showing how to tell if your information was shared with Cambridge Analytica.
- Click on that for a personalized message about whether you clicked on the quiz called “This is Your Digital Life.”
- Even if you didn’t, and even if you have strong privacy settings, if a Facebook friend took the quiz, all of your data on Facebook was likely scraped.
Whether or not your personal information was compromised in the Cambridge Analytica data breach, reviewing your Facebook privacy settings is a smart idea. Marc also participated in a segment with KING 5, another local TV station, that offered advice for users who want to better protect their personal data on Facebook. Here’s a list of steps to check your privacy settings on Facebook and ensure your data isn’t being shared with anyone you don’t want it to be shared with.
- Check to see if your information was shared with Cambridge Analytica
- Control what you share
- Edit what outside apps and websites access your information
- Adjust your ad preferences
- See what your profile looks like to other users
Watch the full videos on KIRO 7 and KING 5 – and for more expert insight into the Facebook data breach, how we got here and why it’s a big deal, check out Marc’s latest article here on Secplicity.