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200,000+ people in Delaware may have had their Facebook data exposed

More than 200,000 Delaware residents may have had personal information exposed as part of the recently disclosed Facebook data breach.

 

Facebook offered the estimated extent of the data breach in Delaware in response to questions from state attorneys general, including Delaware’s Matt Denn, as they looked into the improper sharing of Facebook information.

Denn says Global Science Research may have improperly shared Facebook information of up to 87 million users worldwide with Cambridge Analytica and others:

“It came about some time ago when Facebook allowed this company to make the app available to Facebook users. Facebook users, a little over 900 in Delaware, used the app and that exposed the personal data, potentially of their friends, their Facebook friends, to this company,” said Denn.

 

Denn notes that Facebook estimates up to 200,651 First State users were friends with people who installed the app on the social media network.

 

Denn says he and others continue to look into the extent of the breach.

“Delaware DOJ, along with most of the other state Attorney General’s got involved when this became public and the possibility that that information, personal information, had been used in ways that was never contemplated by the people whose it was came out," said Denn. "So we had a number of questions for Facebook, many of which we’re still waiting answers to.”

 

Denn adds there are ways to protect yourself from these kind of  breaches. One is never choosing the option many websites or apps offer to log in using your Facebook account.

 

Another step Denn suggests is minimizing the number of apps you install.  Users can go to Settings and click on “Apps and Settings” and what apps are installed and click to delete any of them.

 
Facebook users can access or download all the information Facebook has stored about them (files are generally very large) by following instructions here.

Kelli Steele has over 30 years of experience covering news in Delaware, Baltimore, Winchester, Virginia, Phoenix, Arizona and San Diego, California.