Skip to main content

Here’s how to check if Facebook shared your data with Cambridge Analytica

In keeping with earlier promises, Facebook has rolled out a tool that will show users whether their data was in the hands of Cambridge Analytica or any other company that has since been banned from the platform for illicitly accessing people’s personal data — something that may lead to regulation of the social network.

All right, so how can you find out if your data was shared? Simple. Just open Facebook in your browser or on your phone, then navigate to your news feed. If your data was shared or improperly accessed by Cambridge Analytica or any other company now banned from Facebook, you’ll have a notification at the top of your feed explaining just who had your data.

Facebook Privacy Notification
Image used with permission by copyright holder

The images above show what the new privacy notifications will look like. They very clearly state whether or not you were affected, as well as how to double-check which apps and websites currently have access to your data. It’s an important step for Facebook in the face of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, but it remains to be seen whether or not these new notifications will help keep you secure in the long run.

Recommended Videos

Did you miss the notification?

While many people will see the notification, many people won’t — and it’s always possible that you missed it. If you think you did, you can check at any time by going to this support link. It will tell you, in very simple terms, if your data was (or wasn’t) compromised.

“We have more work to do”

“Overall, we believe these changes will better protect people’s information while still enabling developers to create useful experiences,” the Facebook statement reads. “We know we have more work to do — and we’ll keep you updated as we make more changes.”

Facebook has been on its back foot ever since the Cambridge Analytica story broke, and founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is testifying before Congress this week, answering questions about what Facebook knew and when. Zuckerberg delivered a written statement that was released by Congress, in which he takes responsibility and promises to do better in the future.

“Over the past few weeks, we’ve been working to understand exactly what happened with Cambridge Analytica and taking steps to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” Zuckerberg wrote. “We took important actions to prevent this from happening again today four years ago, but we also made mistakes, there’s more to do, and we need to step up and do it.”

Jayce Wagner
Former Digital Trends Contributor
A staff writer for the Computing section, Jayce covers a little bit of everything -- hardware, gaming, and occasionally VR.
Trump campaign used Cambridge Analytica data to suppress Black vote, leak shows
Trump stylized image

President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign worked with Cambridge Analytica to target millions of Black Americans in a massive voter-suppression effort, according to data leaked from the campaign.

Trump's 2016 campaign used a "vast cache of data" on almost 200 million American voters, with 3.5 million Black Americans categorized as "deterrence," or voters that they didn't want to cast ballots, according to an exclusive Channel 4 News report.

Read more
The birth of big data: How Simulmatics predicted the future 60 years ago

Technicians evaluate the UNIVAC computer system in 1951, which took up 352 square feet of floor space and ran at a then-astronomical rate of 2.25 megahertz. Getty

In the 1957 film Desk Set, Katherine Hepburn plays a reference librarian whose job is seemingly threatened by a “mechanical brain,” a room-sized computer named EMERAC. Though she assures her fellow researchers that no machine can do their jobs, her co-worker replies, “that’s what they said in payroll,” before half the workers were fired.

Read more
Here’s how Facebook is preparing for Election Day chaos
zipcar drivethevote electoin 59947941  closeup of an american i voted sticker placed on a navy shirt

Facebook’s new Voting Information Center has many new features to help users ahead of the upcoming election, but one of the center's most critical aspects will be to act as a line of defense against misinformation. 

Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of security policy, said in a press call that the social network is closely tracking three different types of threats leading up to Election Day. These include attempts to suppress voter turnout by spreading false information in how voting works, hack and leak scenarios, and attempts to corrupt or manipulate public debate during ballot counting.

Read more