Earlier this week, Facebook (FB) started notifying 87 million users that their personal information was improperly harvested by political data firm Cambridge Analytica.
Yahoo Finance spoke to three current Facebook users who were affected. All three expressed frustration and disappointment over the violation of their privacy that resulted from Cambridge Analytica acquiring Facebook user data sold by researcher Aleksandr Kogan. Kogan had developed a personality quiz app on Facebook called This is Your Digital Life that surveyed 270,000 users, but because of the high level of access Facebook gave developers at the time, Cambridge Analytica was able to harvest the data of the friends of those 270,000 users, affecting up to 87 million individuals in all.
One of those affected individuals, Tonoccus McClain, a Los Angeles-based musician and actor and longtime Facebook user, received a notification on Facebook’s mobile app early Wednesday morning letting him know the This Is Your Digital Life app “may have misused” some of his information by sharing it with Cambridge Analytica. That information was “limited” to information visible on his public profile, Page likes, his birthday and the city where he currently lives.
McClain did not use the This is Your Digital Life app, which means one of his friends must have and that eventually led to Cambridge Analytica getting its hands on his data. Facebook has banned the app.
“Why was I chosen?” wondered McClain. “I feel like we were used. I really feel like we were used. The good old days of hopping on Facebook and having a good time and catching up with friends is over. To think I could have had a hand with getting Donald Trump in the White House. Mark Zuckerberg has got a lot of work to do.”
Another Facebook user, who asked to remain anonymous for privacy reasons, expressed disappointment that his account was also affected. However, because he had held several jobs in the tech industry over the years, he wasn’t exactly surprised.
“I’ve seen my friends in tech using all kinds of apps on Facebook,” the Facebook user told Yahoo Finance. “But there are always a few people who don’t understand what’s going on.”
Justin Hendrix, executive director at NYC Media Lab in New York City, wasn’t shocked his account was affected either. Although Hendrix made a conscientious decision to dial back his use of Facebook several years ago — ”I felt like I was giving Facebook more than Facebook was giving me” — he was still frustrated to learn his data had been misappropriated.
Hendrix also expressed disappointment in Zuckerberg, who testified on Capitol Hill Tuesday and Wednesday. During his testimony, Facebook’s chief executive admitted that Cambridge Analytica was one of a “handful” of outside parties researcher Kogan sold Facebook user data to. Previously, it was thought Cambridge Analytica was the only firm Kogan had sold data to. During the hearings, Zuckerberg could not specify how many other apps had obtained data.