Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/963162
maltatoday SUNDAY 8 APRIL 2018 News MATTHEW VELLA JUST over 6,000 Maltese users' Facebook data was shared with analytics firm Cambridge Ana- lytica, the European Commission announced on Friday. Facebook said that personal da- ta from around 2.7 million Face- book users in the EU was shared with Cambridge Analytica, in a letter to EU Justice Commission- er Vera Jourova. "Unfortunately, some explana- tions fall short of my expecta- tions. It's clear that data of Euro- peans has been exposed to a huge risk and I am not sure if Face- book took all the necessary steps to implement change," Jourova said on Friday. The company was responding to an earlier letter that Jourova sent to the social media platform on 23 March, in which she de- manded explanations about its knowledge of Cambridge Ana- lytica's alleged harvesting of up to 87 million Facebook users' profiles for its work on political campaigns. Cambridge Analytica whistle- blower Chris Wylie alleged last month that Facebook users' data was analysed without their knowledge, and that the UK- based company worked for Don- ald Trump's presidential cam- paign and the Leave campaign in the 2016 Brexit referendum. The Facebook letter did not include details confirming how many Facebook users in each EU country were affected by the data harvesting. A Facebook spokeswoman said that Cambridge Analytica col- lected data from 1,079,031 in the UK and a total of 309,815 users in Germany. Users of the social media plat- form were affected in all 28 EU member states. In Italy, 214,134 users were af- fected, and in France, 211,667. A total of 136,985 users in Spain had their data scooped up, and 112,421 in Romania. In the Netherlands, 89,373 us- ers were affected, and 63,080 in Portugal. 60,957 Belgians' pro- files were harvested, and 59,480 Greeks'. In Poland, 57,138 users were affected; in Sweden, 55,337; in Ireland, 44,702; in Denmark, 41,820; in Bulgaria, 35,718; in Austria, 33,568; in Hungary, 32,067; in the Czech Republic, 29,376, in Croatia, 21,517; in Finland, 19,693, in Lithuania, 15,123; in Slovakia, 14,846, in Slovenia, 11,255; in Cyprus, 7,455; in Malta, 6,011; in Esto- nia, 5,510; in Latvia, 4,757, and in Luxembourg, 2,645. Facebook CEO Mark Zuck- erberg admitted during a con- ference call with reporters on Wednesday that the company had made mistakes in its han- dling of the incident. He said Cambridge Analytica's collec- tion of profile data through an app broke Facebook 's terms and conditions, which the analytics firm has denied. Zuckerberg also said that Fa- cebook will step up its privacy settings and apply the EU's strict new data protection regulation, known as the GDPR, worldwide. In response to backlash over the scandal, the company an- nounced last month that it would shut down a feature that allows companies to collect Facebook users' data in order to target them with advertising and other information. The company also changed its user terms to make its privacy policy easier to under- stand. Register for your Isle of MTV Malta FREE tickets NOW!!! Register for your Isle of MTV Malta FREE tickets NOW!!! step 1: Go to isleofmtv.com Step 2: Pre-register for tickets up to the 9th April at 10am *** Step 3: Tickets on general release from 12th April – 27th June Step 4: Enjoy the FREE Concert! ***Pre-Register, and you could win VIP tickets!!! ***Pre-Register, and you could win VIP tickets!!! C M Y CM MY CY CMY K IOMTV18_REGISTER_AD.pdf 13 04/04/2018 12:54 Over 6,000 Maltese Facebook users' data harvested by Cambridge Analytica