Stephen Lam
Intimate data from as many three million users of a popular Facebook personality quiz could have been leaked, according to a New Scientist investigation. The myPersonality app requested personal information—such as the results of psychological tests—which was then reportedly distributed by academics at the University of Cambridge with insufficient security measures. More than 6 million people completed the tests on the myPersonality app and almost half agreed to share data from their Facebook profiles with the project. The data sets were controlled by the University of Cambridge’s Psychometrics Centre. Alexandr Kogan, a data scientist at the centre of the Cambridge Analytica allegations, was previously involved in the project. More than 280 people from nearly 150 institutions gained access to the full data set by registering as collaborators on the project, including researchers at companies like Facebook, Google, and Microsoft. Facebook suspended the myPersonality app from its platform on 7 April saying it may have violated its policies. The U.K.’s data watchdog told New Scientist that it's investigating.