The attorney general of Washington, DC in the US has launched a suit against Facebook for failing to protect the personal data of users of the social network. The case focuses specifically on the abuse of Facebook data by the political consultancy Cambridge Analytica ahead of the 2016 elections in the US. The AG said he is seeking monetary and injunctive relief from the courts, including relief for harmed consumers, damages and penalties.
Facebook failed to protect the privacy of its users and deceived them about who had access to their data and how it was used, said AG Karl Racine in a statement. The company put users "at risk of manipulation" by allowing companies like Cambridge Analytica and other third-party applications to collect personal data without users’ permission.
An investigation by the AG found that Facebook violated the District’s Consumer Protection Procedures Act, which prohibits unfair and deceptive trade practices. Alleged abuses included misleading users about the security of their data, failing to properly monitor third-party apps’ use of data, making it difficult for users to control data settings for apps, failing to disclose the Cambridge Analytica breach to consumers for more than two years, failing to ensure users’ improperly obtained data was deleted, and failing to inform consumers that some companies could override data privacy settings.
Facebook has already been fined in the UK over the CA case and announced extensive changes to its policies on privacy settings and third-party apps following the scandal. The company remains under investigation in several jurisdictions over the matter, including by the FTC, FBI, SEC and Department of Justice in the US.
The case is the latest in a string of setbacks for Facebook. A report from the New York Times found that the company may have been giving big tech companies access to extra personal data on customers without their knowledge, while another report found that it is impossible to disable the location settings used by Facebook to target ads to users. Facebook has denied any abuse of data, but its share price still fell over 7 percent on 19 December due to the mounting criticism of the company. In the past six months, the share price is down from a peak of nearly USD 220 to as low as USD 130.
