ROME, April 5 (Xinhua) -- The Italian Data Protection Authority (DPA) said Thursday it will request information from Facebook after it emerged that the privacy of some 214,000 Italian users may have been breached by Cambridge Analytica data mining company, ANSA news agency reported.
DPA chief Antonello Soro told ANSA he will meet with Facebook Deputy Chief Global Privacy Officer Stephen Deadman on April 24.
News broke earlier this year that Cambridge Analytica, a British political consultancy firm with ties to U.S. President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign, accessed information from millions of Facebook users without their consent.
In a statement dated April 4, Facebook Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer said that "in total, we believe the Facebook information of up to 87 million people -- mostly in the U.S. -- may have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica".
The concern is that the misappropriated data of millions of social media users has been used or could be used to distort public debate and sway elections and referendums.
In March, Rome prosecutors opened an investigation into the possible violation of Italian Facebook users' privacy following a complaint by Codacons consumer rights association, which requested the U.S. social media giant be probed for possible "illicit treatment of personal information" and "security measures omissions".