The Facebook Data Scandal. How Safe is Your Data?

With the recent Facebook data scandal, how safe is your personal information online?
Cambridge Analytica, a UK based data firm collected information of a reported 87 million Facebook users during the 2016 US presidential election, the firm used this data to manipulate political messages and arguably, heavily influence the US election. A private firm gaining access to this vast amount of data raised questions over data security, not only on social media but on the internet as a whole. For many, questions such as 'How did a company manage to gain access to this data?' 'Was this legal?' 'Is Facebook selling our information to advertisers?', are still unanswered.

How can I check if my data has been used?
After the scandal came to light, Facebook has implemented a feature that allows you to check if your data has been collected and stored by Cambridge Analytica. From this dedicated link, you can check if your data has been compiled.

How did this scandal happen? Whos to Blame.
Back in 2014, about 270,000 users of Facebook shared their data with the 'This is Your Digital Life' personality quiz, created by Cambridge Analytics. Those who participated in this quiz unknowingly shared information such as birthdays, facebook likes and in some cases, even private messages.
The app also granted access to friends data too, this means that even if you didn't take the quiz but one of your friends did, your data could have been accessed too. Facebook deem this method of data collection as 'inappropriate' and a misuse of there service, however, it went unnoticed until recently.

My data has been accessed, what do I do?
Unfortunately, if your data has been accessed and used, there isn't much you can do at this moment. Facebook has released a statement, directing people to their settings page which displays which applications have access to your data. Users can choose to approve or remove specific applications from accessing their data. It is also possible to view what data Facebook has collected from you over the years, including information like old messages, like history and which advertisers have used and stored your data.
To view this information, go to Settings > General > Your Facebook information > Download a copy of your Facebook data.

What is being done to prevent this from happening again?
While Facebook does not directly sell your personal information to advertisers, it does allow advertisers to tailor their promotions to specific areas, genders, age ranges and interests. Facebook has been under heavy criticism for allowing political agencies to use these mechanisms to promote political messages to specific audiences, greatly increasing the efficiency and impact of the messages. One way Facebook is trying to resolve this is by enforcing that political messages are clearly labelled with the source of the message, sponsor and location that the message came from. While this helps resolve the issue of heavily tailored political messaging, they have been very quiet regarding there policy changes regarding the security of your data.

The Facebook data scandal displays the immense power that micro-targeted advertising can have. On one hand, Facebook users willingly share their information with the website. On the other, are Facebook users fully aware of how their data is being used and are they being taken advantage of? Are you the product that Facebook sells? In the upcoming months, keep an eye on Facebook data policies and how they aim to resolve this issue.