Facebook: 1.7M Virginians affected by alleged privacy breach

Facebook has notified Virginia officials that as many as 1.7 million Virginians – about 20 percent of the state's total population – may have been affected by an alleged privacy breach that recently was uncovered.

According to Facebook, approximately 7,100 users in Virginia downloaded the third-party application 'This is Your Digital Life,' potentially exposing the private information of up to 1.7 million friends of those users. The information was provided in response to a letter Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring sent Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on March 26 demanding information about the number of potentially affected Virginians and about Facebook’s privacy policies and data security practices.

“While we continue to await a fuller explanation about this incident from Facebook and its leadership, an important first step is getting our arms around the scale of the exposure,” said Herring. “The fact that one in five Virginians may have had their personal information shared without permission is extremely troubling. I’d encourage all Virginians to take this opportunity to review their privacy settings and make sure they understand just what they may be sharing with Facebook and other social media platforms.”

According to Facebook:

• 7,103 Virginia users installed the application;
• 1,702,732 friends of those users had their information potentially exposed;
• 1,709,835 total Virginians may have had their information potentially exposed.

Facebook has said that up to 87 million users, mostly in the United States, may have had their data inappropriately turned over to Cambridge Analytica.

Attorney General Herring was one of a bipartisan group of 37 state attorneys general who wrote Facebook with specific questions about the incident and Facebook’s privacy and data protection policies.