Here’s How to Find Out Whether Your Facebook Data Was Shared with Cambridge Analytica

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If you use Facebook, you may be wondering whether you are one of the 87 million people whose data was shared with Cambridge Analytica. Facebook has started to notify its users whether their data was shared, but there is a way to check if you haven’t received the notice yet.

Last month, Facebook revealed that Cambridge Analytica had illegally obtained data from 50 million Facebook users. Later, Facebook increased the number of users whose data had been shared with Cambridge Analytica to 87 million.

While there were ways to protect your data going forward, there wasn’t a way to know whether your data was shared with Cambridge Analytica as part of the data breach.

Don’t miss => How to Find the Data You’ve Shared on Facebook and Protect It in the Future

The breach occurred through an app on Facebook called “This Is Your Digital Life” that accessed data from those who used the app as well as all of their Facebook friends.

This week, Facebook started notifying its users whether their data was shared with Cambridge Analytica. A banner will appear at the top of your Facebook account when you log in, letting you know whether you were one of the 87 million users whose data was breached.

The next time you log into Facebook, look at the top of the page to see if a banner appears. The banner will tell you whether your data may have been shared with Cambridge Analytica.

How to Find Out Whether Your Facebook Data Was Breached If You Don’t See a Banner

If you don’t see a banner, you don’t have to wait until Facebook posts one to your account. Instead, go directly to the Facebook Cambridge Analytica Help Page.

On that page you’ll see information about the breach.

Below that information, you’ll see a notice whether your Facebook data was shared with Cambridge Analytica.

Facebook seems to be basing this notice on whether you or any of your Facebook friends (at the time of the breach) used the app “This Is Your Digital Life.” If neither you nor your friends logged into the app, Facebook will tell you, “it doesn’t appear your Facebook information was shared with Cambridge Analytica by ‘This Is Your Digital Life.'”

Note: Facebook seems to be leaving open the possibility that Cambridge Analytica may have accessed user data through other means with the language in the notice: “it doesn’t appear your Facebook information was shared with Cambridge Analytica by ‘This Is Your Digital Life.'” As of now, however, the use of the app is attributed to the data breach.

Checking and Changing Your App Permissions

On the Cambridge Analytica Help page and in the Cambridge Analytica banner Facebook provides a link to your Facebook app privacy settings to help you check your app permissions.

The app permissions page has been updated to a new format. Facebook will now show you which of the apps you’ve given permission to are current, which app permissions are expired, and which app permissions you have removed.

Clicking on an app in either the Current or Expired tabs shows you what information you have shared with the app developer and what permissions it has.

Expired App Permissions

Expired apps are those you gave permission to on Facebook but you haven’t used in a while. Facebook will show you a list of these apps, as well as the dates that the permissions expired.

An expired app will no longer have access to your Facebook data, but you can still log into the app using Facebook. You should review the expired apps to see whether you still need to use them. If not, remove their permissions.

On the Expired App Permissions page, Facebook says, “These are apps and websites you’ve logged into with Facebook and may not have used in a while. They may still have access to info you previously shared, but their ability to make additional requests for private info has expired. You can still log into these apps and websites using Facebook.”

Removed App Permissions

Under the Removed app permissions tab, you can see which apps you’ve removed from your Facebook account. Facebook warns, however, that the list may not include all the apps you’ve removed from your account.

Facebook also reminds us that even though we may have removed app permissions, the app developers may still have the data that we shared with them. On the page listing apps you’ve removed permissions from, Facebook states: “These are apps and websites you removed from your account. This means they may still have access to info you previously shared, but can’t make additional requests for private info. This list may not include all apps and websites you’ve removed.”

Clicking on an app opens a window with a link to the privacy policy of the app developer.

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Your Thoughts

Have you seen a banner on your Facebook account yet? Did you check whether your Facebook data was shared with Cambridge Analytica? Was your Facebook data shared with Cambridge Analytica?

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* Facebook data image courtesy of geralt via Pixabay and Creative Commons