Majority of Facebook users ‘very concerned’ about sale, use of personal data

A majority of American Facebook users are “very concerned” their data could be sold to outside companies by using the social media platform, according to a Gallup poll released Thursday.

Fifty-five percent of respondents said they are “very concerned” about their data being sold, while 25 percent said they are “somewhat concerned.” Nineteen percent of those polled said they are either not that worried or not at all worried about this prospect.

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The survey results come amid the ongoing privacy scandal plaguing Facebook following revelations that the British data firm Cambridge Analytica, which worked on President Trump’s 2016 campaign, acquired the Facebook data of more than 87 million users without their consent.

Forty-three percent of those polled said they are “very concerned” about an invasion of privacy due to their use of Facebook, while 31 percent said they are “somewhat concerned” about this. Twenty-six percent of the respondents said they are either not too worried or not at all worried about an invasion of privacy.

The poll’s results also follow two days of testimony this week on Capitol Hill by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. In his first appearances before Congress, Zuckerberg answered numerous questions on privacy and data sharing issues surrounding Facebook.

The privacy concerns have sparked calls for legislation that would limit how the social media giant could use its users’ data. 

The Gallup survey of 1,509 individuals was conducted by phone from April 2-8. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.