Facebook said Wednesday personal data on as many as 87 million users was improperly shared with British political consultancy Cambridge Analytica. The new figure eclipses a previous estimate of 50 million in a further embarrassment to the social network roiled by a privacy scandal. The announcement came as Facebook unveiled clearer terms of service to enable users to better understand data sharing, and as a congressional panel said chief executive Mark Zuckerberg would appear next week to address privacy issues.

Facebook's chief technology officer Mike Schroepfer released the new figures on affected users as he discussed implementation of new privacy tools for users of the huge social network. "In total, we believe the Facebook information of up to 87 million people - mostly in the US - may have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica," he said.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2018