Breachesby GlyphDisclosed Mar 17, 201887,000,000 affectedSettled
Data of up to 87 million Facebook users improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica
The Guardian and others revealed that a personality quiz app harvested Facebook profile data that was passed to political consultancy Cambridge Analytica; Facebook later said up to 87 million people were affected. The FTC imposed a record $5 billion penalty over privacy violations.
What is known
| People affected | 87,000,000 (as reported by the organization) |
|---|---|
| Disclosed | Mar 17, 2018 |
| Attack | Vendor breach |
| Data exposed | NamesLocationOther |
| Sector | Tech · US |
| Status | Settled |
| Lawsuit or fine | $5B FTC penalty (2019) (about $5B) |
Sources
Notices filed
Other breaches at Facebook
Hacking breachHacking exposed emails, location data, names, passwords and phone numbers.77K accountsTechUnverifiedFeb 22, 2024Twelve 2018 Facebook breach notifications; Irish DPC fine of EUR 17MTechUSMar 15, 2022Scraped dataset of 533M Facebook users posted online; Irish DPC fine of EUR 265MScraping exposed dates of birth, emails, employment records, location data, names and phone numbers.Scraping533M affectedTechUSApr 3, 2021Exposed server holds 419 million records linking Facebook IDs to phone numbersScraping exposed phone numbers.ScrapingTechUSUnverifiedSep 4, 2019Hundreds of millions of passwords stored in plaintext; Irish DPC fine of EUR 91MExposed data exposed passwords.Exposed dataTechUSMar 21, 20192018 View As token theft hit 29M Facebook accounts; Irish DPC fines of EUR 251MHacking exposed names, emails, phone numbers, location data, employment records, dates of birth and children's data.Hacking29M affectedTechUSSep 28, 2018
History of this record
First seen 2026-09-25 (Research), confirmed by Research. Record counts are as reported. Not legal advice.