Disclosed Mar 17, 20188 years ago87,000,000 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 | Names, Location, Other |
| Sector | Tech · US |
| Status | Settled |
| Lawsuit or fine | $5B FTC penalty (2019) (about $5B) |
Sources
| Source | |
|---|---|
| An Update on Our Plans to Restrict Data Access on Facebookabout.fb.com · The organization | The organization |
| FTC Imposes $5 Billion Penalty and Sweeping New Privacy Restrictions on Facebookftc.gov · Regulator | Regulator |
| Revealed: 50 million Facebook profiles harvested for Cambridge Analytica in major data breachtheguardian.com · News | News |
Notices filed
| Where | Filed | People |
|---|---|---|
| Researchtotal | Mar 17, 2018 | 87,000,000 |
Other breaches at Facebook
| Breach | Affected | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Disclosed Feb 22, 2024Feb 22, 20242 years agoHackingUnverified | Feb 22, 20242 years ago | Hacking | Tech | Unverified | 77Kacct |
| Twelve 2018 Facebook breach notifications; Irish DPC fine of EUR 17MMar 15, 20224 years ago | Mar 15, 20224 years ago | Not stated | Tech | Settled | Unknown |
| Scraped dataset of 533M Facebook users posted online; Irish DPC fine of EUR 265MApr 3, 20215 years agoScraping | Apr 3, 20215 years ago | Scraping | Tech | Settled | 533M |
| Exposed server holds 419 million records linking Facebook IDs to phone numbersSep 4, 20197 years agoScrapingUnverified | Sep 4, 20197 years ago | Scraping | Tech | Unverified | Unknown |
| Hundreds of millions of passwords stored in plaintext; Irish DPC fine of EUR 91MMar 21, 20197 years agoExposed data | Mar 21, 20197 years ago | Exposed data | Tech | Settled | Unknown |
| 2018 View As token theft hit 29M Facebook accounts; Irish DPC fines of EUR 251MSep 28, 20187 years agoHacking | Sep 28, 20187 years ago | Hacking | Tech | Settled | 29M |
History of this record
First seen 2026-09-25 (Research), confirmed by Research. Record counts are as reported. Not legal advice.