It’s been a few weeks now since companies implemented the GDPR and while that does address data privacy concerns a little, we would have to take a look at a few other things as well. For one, Facebook isn’t what we thought it to be – and its ability to make money off you – sometimes even illegitimately – seems to be the biggest concern.

The issue of data privacy becomes paramount in the days of rampant use of social media. We have time and again faced different threats which led to the compromise of personal information of users. Facebook has time and again come under attack for its vulnerabilities which sometimes gave out personal information.

The recent scandal involving Cambridge Analytica shows that our data may not be safe after all in the hands of social media platforms like Facebook.

What exactly happened with Facebook?

Facebook allows developers to publish their application on their platform. The applications can collect user data with the user’s consent but aren’t allowed to share or sell them to third parties.

You must have taken part in a personality quiz on Facebook that asks you to answer different questions. According to experts, a lot can be told about a person by analyzing his Facebook data and information such as sexual and political orientation.

Such an approach was adopted by a professor of St. Petersburg State University called Aleksandr Kogan.  He created a personality quiz on Facebook which needed users to input different information as answers. The application also scanned the data on the user’s profile and also analyzed data of people in their friend list if allowed by privacy settings. In total, Kogan collected data of around 87 million people out of whom 72 million were potential American voters.

Until now the tricks of Kogan didn’t violate Facebook policies. But the breach was made when Kogan is said to have passed on the data to a third party firm called Cambridge Analytica without Facebook’s or user’s permission.

It is alleged that the data was used by Cambridge Analytica to influence voters in the American presidential elections. Interestingly, Cambridge Analytica was the firm that supported the campaign of Donald Trump this time. Some say that the firm used the data to find out their target voters and device messages to influence them- it’s what Cambridge Analytica is known for.

They are a PR and public messaging company who create content based on psychological profiles to influence them to fall for their client’s desires. They have made several dubious efforts to influence around the world till now.

When Facebook discovered the mishap in 2015, they appealed to Cambridge Analytica to delete all the information it has gathered. The firm released a report that they had deleted all backup but it was found that they were still in possession of majority of the data. That data might have been used to influence the American voters, though the firm has always denied it.

We may enter our personal data in Facebook thinking we are only sharing them with friends, but that is not the case at all!