Prosecutors Sue Facebook Over Cambridge Analytica
The US federal district of Washington DC is suing Facebook for Cambridge Analytica access to the individual data of millions of the site’s users without their permission being asked for.
Prosecutors said 852 D.C. users downloaded the misleading application provided by Cambridge Analytica but that a much larger portion of DC residents, approximately 340,000 people, had their data collected because they were friends of those initial users through Facebook.
This could mean Facebook faces a fine of up to $1.7 billion if all 340,000 instances are considered “violations” under the statute.
However, it seems that this might just be the beginning of a major Facebook data sharing problem as there is now discussion over whether Spotify and Netflix have the options to read and or trash personal messages. Facebook also is being accused of using location-based advertising after a user has even blocked that company’s GPS access on their phones.
“Facebook failed to protect the privacy of its users and deceived them about who had access to their data and how it was used,” the city’s attorney general, Karl Racine.
“Facebook put users at risk of manipulation by allowing companies like Cambridge Analytica and other third-party applications to collect personal data without users’ permission. Today’s lawsuit is about making Facebook live up to its promise to protect its users’ privacy.”
Facebook, has more than 2 billion active users around the world. Through a website and a mobile application which allows users to communicate and share content with personalised networks of “friends.”
An investigation earlier in 2018 found that Cambridge Analytica, which worked for Donald Trump’s political campaign, had collected Facebook profiles data of more than 50 million users without their permission. The DC attorney general said that this process exposed almost half of the district’s residents’ data to potential political manipulation in the 2016 presidential election.
In a statement, Facebook said: “None of these partnerships or features gave companies access to information without people’s permission, nor did they violate our 2012 settlement with the FTC.”
“Facebook does not use WiFi data to determine your location for ads if you have location services turned off. We do use IP and other information such as check-ins and current city from your profile. We explain this to people, including in our Privacy Basics site and on the About Facebook Ads site.”
However, there is no obvious combination of settings that users can employ to prevent their location from being used by advertisers to target them.
The district attorney said the maximum penalty under the act is $5,000 “per violation”. However, the law in not clear as to what may constitute a single violation according to the regulations.
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