https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/4/17199632/facebook-cambridge-analytica-data-collection-87-million-users-api-developer-restrictions >Facebook today revealed that as many as 87 million users, most of them in the US, may have had their information improperly obtained and used by the data mining firm Cambridge Analytica. The revelation indicates that nearly twice as many Facebook users may have been directly affected by the ongoing data privacy scandal resulting from the unauthorized sale of the social network’s user data to the third-party company, which was contracted by the Trump campaign to help with election ad targeting. Initial reports from The New York Times and The Guardian put the figure at as many as 50 million users. >Facebook revealed the information at the bottom of a blog post penned by chief technology officer Mike Schroepfer, who is among the highest ranking executives at the company behind CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg. The post outlines plans to restrict the use of its many application programming interfaces, or APIs, that allow developers to plug into the service and extract user data from it. The changes are sweeping, and they come as part of a multistep effort from Facebook these past two weeks to repair its image with politicians and the public, assuage critics condemning the company’s privacy track record, and crack down on the misuse of its platform by third-party companies and foreign governments.