(Eagle News) — The Philippines had the second most number of Facebook accounts that may have been improperly accessed by British political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica.
In a post, Mike Schroepfer, Facebook’s chief technology officer, said 1,175,870 accounts may have been affected, only next to the 70, 632,350 that may have been affected in the United States.
Schroepfer said the Philippines was followed by Indonesia (1,096,666 accounts), the United Kingdom (1,079,001), Mexico (789,.880), Canada (622,161), and India (562,455).
Brazil (443,117), Vietnam (427,446), and Australia (311,127) were also included in Schroepfer’s list.
All in all, Facebook said the data of up to 87 million people worldwide may have been shared with Cambridge Analytica.
Australia is already investigating Facebook over the alleged privacy breaches.
“The investigation will consider whether Facebook has breached the Privacy Act,” acting Privacy Commissioner Angelene Falk said in a statement.
“Given the global nature of this matter, the OAIC (Office of the Australian Information Commissioner) will confer with regulatory authorities internationally.”
Falk said under Australian law, all organizations had to take “reasonable steps” to ensure personal information was being held securely and that customers were notified about the collection and handling of their data.
Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg is due to testify before the US Congress next week, in what is expected to be multiple congressional hearings over the scandal.
The tech behemoth is also facing probes over the data breach from US consumer protection agency the Federal Trade Commission and from a joint New York-Massachusetts investigation.
The European Union has given Facebook until next week to answer questions over the harvested data, while the London offices of Cambridge Analytica have been searched by Britain’s Information Commissioner. Agence France Presse