The Information Regulator has asked Facebook to contact all South Africans affected by the social network’s data breach, and to state what steps it is taking to ensure users’ data remains safe, says a Business Day report. Facebook said last week that 59 777 Facebook users in SA were ‘potentially impacted’ by the data breach via their friendships with 33 users of a personality quiz app.

The personal information of 87m of the social media platform’s 2.2bn users worldwide may have been wrongfully shared with Cambridge Analytica. SA’s Information Regulator said it had ‘decided to proactively and voluntarily engage Facebook with regards to the alleged data breach’.

The regulator had written to Facebook to establish the extent of the breach, what measures the firm was taking ‘to prevent further compromise’, and to request that Facebook inform affected users so they could ‘take proactive measures’ against any consequences. The Protection of Personal Information Act, SA’s data protection framework, required Facebook to secure users’ personal information, the regulator said. Anyone affected by the breach could lay a formal complaint, it added.

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