PHL had 2nd most number of accounts accessed by Cambridge Analytica —Facebook

The Philippines had the second most number of Facebook accounts that may have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica, the social media giant announced.

In a post Mike Schroepfer, Facebook Chief Technology Officer, the company said up to 87 million people may have been impacted.

Some 1.1 million accounts from the Philippines may have been affected, the second-most after the United States.

"We do not know precisely what data the app shared with Cambridge Analytica or exactly how many people were impacted. Using as expansive a methodology as possible, this is our best estimate of the maximum number of unique accounts that directly installed the thisisyourdigital life app as well as those whose data may have been shared with the app by their friends," Facebook said.

The world's largest social media company has been hammered by investors and faces anger from users, advertisers and lawmakers after a series of scandals about fake news stories, election-meddling and privacy.

Last month, Facebook acknowledged that personal information about millions of users wrongly ended up in the hands of Cambridge Analytica.

The previous estimate of more than 50 million Facebook users affected by the data leak came from two newspapers, the New York Times and London's Observer, based on their investigations of Cambridge Analytica.

Schroepfer did not provide details of how Facebook came to determine its higher estimate, but he said Facebook would tell people if their information may have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica.

The British-based consultancy has denied wrongdoing. It says it engaged a university professor "in good faith" to collect Facebook data in a manner similar to how other third-party app developers have harvested personal information. —with a report from Reuters/JST, GMA News