Facebook now says more were exposed
NEW YORK — Facebook revealed Wednesday that tens of millions more people might have been exposed in the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal than previously thought and said it will restrict the user data that outsiders can access.
Those developments came as congressional officials said CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify next week, while Facebook unveiled a new privacy policy that aims to explain the data it gathers on users more clearly — but doesn’t actually change what it collects and shares.
In a call with reporters Wednesday, Mr. Zuckerberg acknowledged he made a “huge mistake” in failing to take a broad enough view of what Facebook’s responsibility is in the world.
Facebook is facing its worst privacy scandal in years following allegations that Cambridge Analytica, a Donald Trump-affiliated data mining firm, used illgotten data from millions of users through an app to try to influence elections.
Facebook said Wednesday that as many as 87 million people might have had their data accessed — an increase from the 50 million disclosed in published reports.
On Monday all Facebook users will receive a notice on their Facebook feeds with a link to see what apps they use and what information they have shared with those apps.
Cosby jury selected
NORRISTOWN, Pa. — The panel that will be charged with deciding Bill Cosby’s fate was finalized Wednesday, as lawyers completed a three-day search for 12 Montgomery County residents who hadn’t already made up their minds about the case.
In the end, all but one member of the new panel said that they were at least somewhat familiar with the sexual assault allegations at the center of the 80-year-old entertainer’s first trial in Norristown last year. Some even said they had heard that a previous set of 12 jurors had been unable to reach a unanimous verdict in June, a deadlock that prompted a mistrial.
Opening arguments are scheduled to begin Monday.
Gov. vs. striking teachers
OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, R, is under siege after she compared striking teachers converging on the state Capitol to rally for education funding to “a teenage kid that wants a better car.”
Her comments, in response to a question from CBS correspondent Omar Villafranca, came amid a teacher walkout that has closed schools across Oklahoma for hundreds of thousands of students. Teachers began rallying at the Capitol on Monday and have returned each day since.
“Teachers want more,” Mr. Fallin told Villafranca Tuesday. “But it’s kind of like having a teenage kid that wants a better car.”
Also in the nation ...
A federal judge expressed doubts Wednesday about a lawsuit brought by Paul Manafort challenging Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s criminal probe of Russian interference in 2016 U.S. elections. During a 90minute hearing in Washington, D.C., Mr. Manafort’s defense team retreated from requests that the court void Mr. Mueller’s appointment and dismiss criminal charges already brought in the District and Virginia against President Donald Trump’s former presidential campaign chairman . ... Anthony Borges, who was shot five times at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., was released from Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale Wedneday.