FTC probes Facebook over personal data use following Cambridge Analytica revelations
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has allegedly started investigating Facebook concerning the use of user data by analytics firm Cambridge Analytica, including whether the social network violated the terms of a 2011 settlement by providing the data without the user's consent.
The FTC is probing Facebook following the revelation that the UK-based Cambridge Analytica acquired the data of as many as 50 million Facebook users, reports Bloomberg, which may have been misused to influence a number of political events, including the 2016 US presidential campaign.
The probe is specifically looking into whether or not Facebook violated the terms of a consent decree from 2011, report sources claim. The decree was issued after it was found user data had been provided to Cambridge Analytica, but without the prior knowledge of the user.
As part of the decree, Facebook agreed to acquire the user's consent for changes to privacy settings, to settle federal charges that it deceived users and ended up sharing more personal data than the users would have intended. At the time, users complained to the FTC about Facebook making changes to some of the user settings without informing the service's users, prompting the government agency's investigation.
Facebook announced on Friday it had suspended Cambridge Analytica and parent company Strategic Communications Laboratories for violating the site's Terms of Service, specifically rules about the collection and retention of data. It is believed Cambridge Analytica acquired user data that was obtained by unauthorized means, which would provide the firm an unfair advantage compared to other political analytics teams.
Cambridge Analytica claims it is an innocent party, stating in a press release it received Facebook data in good faith from another firm, GSR, but deleted the data after procedural irregularities were discovered. The firm also stresses the data in question was not included as part of services provided to the Donald Trump presidential campaign.
Facebook could face fines of thousands of dollars a day per violation, if the FTC determines Facebook violated the consent decree terms. If calculated on a per-user basis, the penalty could extend into the billions of dollars, possibly up to $800 billion based on a 2011 FTC press release's disclosed maximum civil penalty.
Facebook is already suffering from the effects of the Cambridge Analytica news, with the stock price falling 3.2 percent as of 9:31 a.m. eastern time, following another drop of 6.8 percent on Monday.
The FTC is not the only government body looking into Facebook's involvement in the matter. BBC News reports Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been called to give evidence to a parliamentary committee in the United Kingdom, with a letter from MP Damian Collins requesting the CEO to appear as a "senior Facebook executive with the sufficient authority to give an accurate account of this catastrophic failure of process."
The UK's Information Commissioner's Office is also pursuing a warrant for its own on-site investigation of Cambridge Analytica's London office.
The FTC is probing Facebook following the revelation that the UK-based Cambridge Analytica acquired the data of as many as 50 million Facebook users, reports Bloomberg, which may have been misused to influence a number of political events, including the 2016 US presidential campaign.
The probe is specifically looking into whether or not Facebook violated the terms of a consent decree from 2011, report sources claim. The decree was issued after it was found user data had been provided to Cambridge Analytica, but without the prior knowledge of the user.
As part of the decree, Facebook agreed to acquire the user's consent for changes to privacy settings, to settle federal charges that it deceived users and ended up sharing more personal data than the users would have intended. At the time, users complained to the FTC about Facebook making changes to some of the user settings without informing the service's users, prompting the government agency's investigation.
Facebook announced on Friday it had suspended Cambridge Analytica and parent company Strategic Communications Laboratories for violating the site's Terms of Service, specifically rules about the collection and retention of data. It is believed Cambridge Analytica acquired user data that was obtained by unauthorized means, which would provide the firm an unfair advantage compared to other political analytics teams.
Cambridge Analytica claims it is an innocent party, stating in a press release it received Facebook data in good faith from another firm, GSR, but deleted the data after procedural irregularities were discovered. The firm also stresses the data in question was not included as part of services provided to the Donald Trump presidential campaign.
Facebook could face fines of thousands of dollars a day per violation, if the FTC determines Facebook violated the consent decree terms. If calculated on a per-user basis, the penalty could extend into the billions of dollars, possibly up to $800 billion based on a 2011 FTC press release's disclosed maximum civil penalty.
Facebook is already suffering from the effects of the Cambridge Analytica news, with the stock price falling 3.2 percent as of 9:31 a.m. eastern time, following another drop of 6.8 percent on Monday.
The FTC is not the only government body looking into Facebook's involvement in the matter. BBC News reports Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been called to give evidence to a parliamentary committee in the United Kingdom, with a letter from MP Damian Collins requesting the CEO to appear as a "senior Facebook executive with the sufficient authority to give an accurate account of this catastrophic failure of process."
The UK's Information Commissioner's Office is also pursuing a warrant for its own on-site investigation of Cambridge Analytica's London office.
Comments
Facebook is free because user eyeballs & information is the product.
IMHO, this is all political posturing and grandstanding. I would completely expect that this same sort of data leak has happened many times with other data harvesting companies. It's only news because the "evil" Trump campaign is involved. I'd love to see someone investigate similar data analytic practices on the Democratic side of the fence - I wouldn't be surprised if they used the same company & same data.
When I was young, my father warned me that humanity is fully capable of repeating huge mistakes. He's now (from my perspective) deep into making one himself, as he rails against any suggestion that Facebook might have been used to manipulate people.
We live in interesting times.
Each of these are supported by collecting as much personal information about you as they can and targeting specific ads (be it political or products) at your eyes. It is time for people to start realizing just how complete the personality models of these companies are and start thinking about putting limits on how much data can be collected and just how it is shared and used.
Yet at the same time, I suspect FB will not really end up being hurt *unless* laws are passed that limit their ability to collect and share user data. In the absence of new laws, I don't think FB will be hurt because most FB users don't care enough about this sort of thing to actually reduce their use of FB. I suspect the average FB user is pretty different from the average Apple customer.
It might not be but I can dream can't I?
{I don't use and have never used FB, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram etc}
http://www.itpro.co.uk/data-protection/24736/tim-cook-apple-doesnt-want-your-data
What does Cook have to say?
“I’m speaking to you from Silicon Valley, where some of the most prominent and successful companies have built their businesses by lulling their customers into complacency about their personal information,” said Cook. “They’re gobbling up everything they can learn about you and trying to monetize it. We think that’s wrong. And it’s not the kind of company that Apple wants to be.”
Well, that certainly sounds like a man who doesn’t sell his customers’ data. Do you have any reliable evidence that proves that Apple is selling its customers private info?
But it does lead to one interesting question:
Should Apple really be taking billions off Google in return for making their search engine the default on Safari? Apple itself may not be selling not the surfing habits of its customers, but, ignoring the laughable situation of Android users providing some little value that Google has to pay to track someone else's user base, is it right that Apple provides a paid gateway for Google to track and sell our surfing habits?
One to ponder I’m sure.
Anyway, last week I said that Apple should relax some of its privacy rules because they can gather useful information without flogging it to anyone with an open chequebook. In light of this Facebook screwup, I was clearly wrong: it’s not about me trusting Apple to do the right thing; it’s about Apple not wanting to find itself in a position where it has to ask itself if it has done the right thing.
And the biggie: They also have sharing agreements with the biggest data aggregator of all, Acxiom who knows exactly who you are: where you live, what you earn, where you shop, what you've purchased, who your children are, where you were born and where your siblings live, the size of your home, where the bedrooms, living room and kitchen are located, what political affiliation you have, the church you attend (if you do), what traffic tickets you ever been given, what insurance claims you've ever made, in some cases what medication you have been prescribed and the doctor you visited, and a plethora of other personal information. All in all if you have a Facebook account, even one that you imagine is anonymous, they might know exactly who you are despite your best intentions.
https://www.acxiom.com/news/acxiom-becomes-audience-data-provider-facebook-marketing-partner-program/
And this will be forgotten just as quickly.