More Americans taking a break from -- or breaking up with -- Facebook

These Pew findings are the sort of thing that keeps Mark Zuckerberg up at night.

Marrian Zhou Staff Reporter

Marrian Zhou is a Beijing-born Californian living in New York City. She joined CNET as a staff reporter upon graduation from Columbia Journalism School. When Marrian is not reporting, she is probably binge watching, playing saxophone or eating hot pot.

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Marrian Zhou

Sept. 5, 2018 1:49 p.m. PT

Americans are getting more cautious with Facebook , a new study says.

Forty-four percent of younger users, aged 18 to 29, have deleted the Facebook phone app in the past year, according to a Pew Research Center survey released Wednesday. And 42 percent of adult users have taken a break from checking the social network for a period of several weeks or more, the study says.

The survey of US adults was conducted from May 29 to June 11, following Facebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal, where the political consulting firm got hold of data from tens of millions of Facebook users without their permission. After that, Facebook added new features to make it easier for users to control their privacy settings. The survey showed that 54 percent of Facebook users 18 and older have adjusted their privacy settings in the past year.

Facebook didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.