How to Check If Your Facebook Data Was Shared With Cambridge Analytica

Facebook's data privacy scandal, kicked off by Cambridge Analytica revelations late last month, is far from dying out. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is set to testify to US Congress on Tuesday and Wednesday, while other executives have begun doing the rounds of various regulators in Europe. Facebook had revealed that data of 87 million users had been shared, a number that was significantly larger than the original 50 million estimate. Amongst those, over 5 lakh users were from India.

The social network had last week promised it would notify all those users whose data had been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica, starting April 9. However, those notifications appear to be slow to roll out. In the meanwhile, Facebook has released a tool that shows whether you were amongst those who were affected - specifically, by the This Is Your Digital Life app used by Cambridge Analytica.

To see if you were one of those whose data was improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica, you need to visit this Facebook Help Centre page. Titled 'How can I tell if my info was shared with Cambridge Analytica?', the page clearly explains the process to check.

A box is seen on the page, titled 'Was my information shared?', and within that lies the answer you're looking for. If like us, you weren't affected, you will be informed that "neither you nor your friends have logged into 'This Is Your Digital Life'. As a result, it doesn't appear your Facebook information was shared with Cambridge Analytica by 'This Is Your Digital Life'." Needless to say, you need to be logged in to Facebook to see the answer.

If in case your friend was affected - i.e., they used the This Is Your Digital Life app, some of your data would also have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica. The Facebook Help Centre page will mention this, however, it will not reveal who that friend is, presumably to prevent backlash. The company points both affected and unaffected users to another page where they can check and update the information they share with apps and websites.

To recall, Facebook last week silently added a bulk app removal tool that let users select multiple apps in one go to remove, rather than one at a time. This is useful to disconnect those third-party apps from your Facebook account that might be leaking your data. Visit this page for more details on how to do that.