Facebook Scandal: Tech Giant to Face Legal Problem Following Cambridge Analytica Leak

Facebook You Owe Us group takes legal action following Facebook's heavy involvement in the 2018 Cambridge Analytica data breach.

"When we use Facebook, we expect that our personal data is being used responsibly, transparently, and legally," said Alvin Caprio.

"By failing to protect our personal information from abuse, we believe that Facebook broke the law."

However, the tech giant claimed to not receive any document regarding the lawsuit claim. 

The lawsuit follows the same trajectory as Google's mass action lawsuit. Led by the 'Google, You Owe Us' group, the lawsuit focuses on allegations of harvesting 5.4 million UK users by 'bypassing privacy settings on their phones.' A court hearing will be done by April 2021. 

Both will be represented by law firm Millberg London. The failure to meet legal obligations under the Data Protection Act 1998 would cost so much trouble for Facebook. 

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How Did the Facebook Scandal of the Cambridge Analytica Leak Unfold?

Facebook was reportedly thrown under the bus in 2018 after a political consultancy Cambridge Analytica unlawfully harvested 87 million user data for political purposes. 

Known as the most massive data leak in Facebook's history, it all started way back in 2013 when researcher Aleksandr Kogan launched a personality quiz-like app. It amassed over 270,000 downloads, and it collected over 87 million users' data. 

Former Cambridge Analytica employee Christopher Wylie became the whistleblower after coming clean to an interview with The New York Times and The Guardian in 2018. 

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"Facebook could see it was happening," said Wylie. "Their security protocols were triggered because Kogan's apps were pulling this enormous amount of data, but apparently Kogan told them it was for academic use. So they were like, 'Fine'."

It's well-known that the sleazy tactic was used to aid Donald Trump and Ted Cruz's presidential campaign and the Brexit Leave operation. Facebook has apologized, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has testified in front of Congress. 

The leak sparked worldwide controversy, with users calling for a boycott of Facebook products. 

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Facebook, Twitter, and Google Bosses' Congress Hearing 

Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey (Twitter), and Sundar Pichai (Google) have testified before the Congress on Wednesday (10/28), exactly a week before the election. 

Senate Commerce committee subpoenaed the tech titans to review Section 230 of the 1996's Communications Decency Act. 

Both parties, which are led respectively by Donald Trump from Republican and Joe Biden from Democrat, have been going at each other since the campaign's start. Section 230 shields social media from both parties' lawsuit over their users' posts. 

Either way, things are not looking so good at Facebook. 

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