Facebook: 87 million hit by Cambridge Analytica scandal

The spotlight is on Facebook over privacy. Photo / AP

The number of Facebook users believed affected by the Cambridge Analytica scandal was believed to be a scary 50 million.

But now Facebook has raised the estimate of users whose data was improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica to 87 million.

The firm's chief technology officer, Mike Schroepfer, upgraded the figure in a blog about Facebook's privacy changes.

The BBC reported that about one million of the users were in Britain, where Cambridge Analytica is based.

The Washington Post said most of the people impacted were living in the United States.

The changes include restricting third-party app access and deleting phone call and text information that's over a year old.

Facebook also said it will stop a feature that lets users search for a profile using a phone number or personal email.

"Given the scale and sophistication of the activity we've seen, we believe most people on Facebook could have had their public profile scraped in this way," Schroepfer said. "So we have now disabled this feature."

The company's founder Mark Zuckerberg will testify before Congress on April 11.