Fallout from Facebook data scandal may hit health research

The scandal that has erupted around Cambridge Analytica's alleged use of 50 million Facebook profiles in the 2016 US election campaign is worrying for legitimate researchers who use social media data. Cambridge Analytica has denied any wrongdoing and said that the business tactics it used are widespread among other firms. But a day after the scandal hit, Facebook's shares plummeted on Wall Street amid a privacy backlash. The worry is the incident could also affect legitimate academic research. Social media data is a rich source of information for many areas of research in psychology, technology, business and humanities.