5.6 Lakh Indian Users Affected By Data Breach; Facebook Introduces Tools For Users To Secure Data

Responding to the Ministry of Information Technology’s notice to Facebook and Cambridge Analytica on data breach, Facebook in its detailed report said that more than 5.6 lakh people were potentially affected by the data breach, which is 0.6% of the people potentially affected in the world.

According to the detailed report, 335 people in India installed the app “thisisyourdigitallife”, which is 0.1% of the app’s worldwide installs. Through these 335 users, other 5,62,120 facebook friends were additionally affected, which means about 0.22% of Indian users may have been affected. Facebook estimates that data of about 87 million users worldwide has been harvested.

Facebook introduces security-related changes

The Cambridge Analytica scam has revealed major loopholes in Facebook’s privacy and security policies. Last month, Facebook CEO and co-founder, Mark Zuckerberg in his Facebook post spoke at length about the company’s plans to tackle the issue of data leakage while accepting breach of trust.

Facebook has announced few changes in its policies. The changes are outlined in the blog, It’s Time to Make Our Privacy Tools Easier to Find.

One of the major changes made is revamping the setting menu in mobile devices. Settings which were spread across 20 different screens can now be accessed on one single place. The old settings have been removed, making it clear what kind of information can be shared with apps.

New privacy shortcuts menu is also introduced to enable the users to control their data without any hassle. There have been several features like two-factor authentication to make accounts safer. Further, an option is provided to users to review posts shared/ reacted, friend requests sent and even things searched on Facebook along with the option to delete it if one wishes to. Privacy settings can be changed to restrict the visibility of posts and profile information.

The announcement of a new tool, named “Access Your Information” was made. This tool is said to be a secure way for people to access and manage their information like posts, reactions, comments and things searched for. There would be a provision for users to delete this information if they wished to.

Apart from this, another blog, An Update on Our Plans to Restrict Data Access on Facebook, enlists nine changes made to protect users’ Facebook information. In this, several changes has been made to Event, Group and Page API. Furthermore, changes have been made to Facebook login, search and account recovery.

Not only Facebook, but similar security-related changes will be reflected in different other apps like Instagram and Messenger as well.

These changes were introduced after Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook suffered severe criticism post Cambridge Analytica scam. Zuckerberg is asked to appear before the House of Commons Parliamentary Committee and the US Congress.

The detailed report submitted by Facebook was when IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the government could summon the Facebook founderto India if needed. As per reports, India has the seven largest number of users affected.