‘A grand illusion’: seven days that shattered Facebook’s facade

Revelations about the depths of Facebook's failure to protect our data have finally pulled back the curtain, observers say

• Cambridge Analytica scandal: the biggest revelations so far

"Dumb fucks." That's how Mark Zuckerberg described users of Facebook for trusting him with their personal data back in 2004. If the last week is anything to go by, he was right.

Since the Observer reported that the personal data of about 50 million Americans had been harvested from Facebook and improperly shared with the political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, it has become increasingly apparent that the social network has been far more lax with its data sharing practices than many users realised.