INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption
Facebook has blocked Cambridge Analytica from further access to its data
Facebook has confirmed that private messages were included in data involved in the Cambridge Analytica scandal.The social network
said that about 0.5% of the 305,000 people who installed a personal data-harvesting app had given permission for it to access their Facebook
inboxes.However, many more would have been affected as the haul would have included conversations with others
It is not clear whether the messages were given to Cambridge Analytica.The political consultancy has yet to comment on the latest
"Prior to 2015, Facebook's platform policy allowed developers to request permission to access inbox content but only if the person
explicitly gave consent for this to happen," a spokeswoman for the US tech firm told the BBC."According to our records, only a very small
number of people - approximately 1,500 - explicitly opted into sharing this information with Kogan's app
The feature was turned off in 2015."On Monday, Cambridge Analytica issued a fresh statement, restating that it had licensed "legally
obtained" data from Global Science Research director Aleksandr Kogan, adding that "hundreds of data firms have utilised Facebook data in a
similar fashion".The latest revelation emerged after Facebook began sending notices to users it had indentified as being among the 87
million people whose data had been potentially shared with Cambridge Analytica.Image copyrightFacebookImage caption
Facebook is sending messages to members it believes could have had data shared with Cambridge Analytica
That figure includes
both those who took Mr Kogan's test as well as their friends, whose personal records the app also had access to
Cambridge Analytica has said it only obtained data on about 30 million US citizens.Facebook's alerts included the warning: "A small number
of people who logged into This Is Your Digital Life also shared their own messages from you."Carole Cadwalladr - the Observer journalist
whose investigation helped plunge Facebook into the current crisis - was among the first to pick up on the implication.The BBC understands
that Facebook does not believe that any of the 1,500 users involved had also given access to their SMS texts, despite the fact that there
used to be ways to group all one's messages together in one place.The latest revelation came hours before Facebook's chief executive Mark
Zuckerberg was due to testify before the US Senate Commerce and Judiciary committees in Washington.He is also due to be questioned by the
House Congressional Testimony on Wednesday.Ahead of his appearance, Facebook announced it would begin paying bounties to those who reported
misuses of members' data by app developers."This programme will reward people with first-hand knowledge and proof of cases where a Facebook
platform app collects and transfers people's data to another party to be sold, stolen or used for scams or political influence," it said.
