Privacy scandal widens as Facebook data leak hits 87m users

This number is up from a previous news media estimate of 50 million.

Facebook chief technology officer, Mike Schroepfer, writes in a blog post that most of the 87 million people whose data were shared with Cambridge Analytica, were in the United States.

However, the social media corporation has said it was taking steps to restrict the personal data available to third-party app developers.

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg will testify about the matter next week before the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, the panel said on Wednesday.

As at Wednesday, 4th April Facebook shares were down by 1.4 per cent to 153.90 dollars. They’ve gone down by more than 16 percent since the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke.

The previous estimate of more than 50 million Facebook users affected by the data leak came from two newspapers, the New York Times and London’s Observer, based on their investigations of Cambridge Analytica.

All through the scandal process, the British-based consultancy firm has denied wrongdoing saying it engaged a university professor “in good faith” to collect Facebook data in a manner similar to how other third-party app developers have harvested personal information.