#DeleteFacebook trended after which data scandal involving Facebook users?

#DeleteFacebook trended after the Cambridge Analytica scandal involving Facebook users’ personal data.

The controversy centered on data collected through “This Is Your Digital Life,” a personality-quiz app developed by Aleksandr Kogan and his company, Global Science Research. Facebook’s platform allowed the app to gather information not only from people who installed it but also, under the rules then in place, from many of their Facebook friends. Cambridge Analytica obtained the data and used it to build political and psychological profiles.

The story became a worldwide scandal in March 2018 after reporting by The Guardian and The New York Times, including revelations from former Cambridge Analytica employee Christopher Wylie. Facebook users, public figures, and privacy advocates responded with the boycott slogan #DeleteFacebook. The campaign criticized both Cambridge Analytica’s use of the information and Facebook’s failure to protect it.

A frequent mistake is calling this the Panama Papers or another general political scandal. The defining issue was social-media data harvesting and political targeting. Facebook later said that potentially more than 87 million profiles were affected, although the exact data uses and scale were debated.