Lawmakers call on
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to explain how names, preferences and data from tens of millions of users ended up in the hands of a firm connected with President Donald Trump’s campaign.
U.S. and European officials on Sunday called for Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg to explain how personal information about tens of millions of users ended up in the hands of a data analysis firm that worked for President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign — without the permission or knowledge of the vast majority of those affected.
News reports about Facebook’s role in the aggressive form of data collection also have raised serious questions about whether the company violated a landmark consent decree with a federal watchdog agency designed to prevent privacy violations.
Two former U.S. officials who negotiated the 2011 agreement between the Federal Trade Commission and Facebook say the company may have broken its promises, potentially triggering many millions of dollars in fines.
“I would not be surprised if at some point the FTC looks at this. I would expect them to,” said David Vladeck, a former director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. In that role, he oversaw the investigation of alleged privacy violations by Facebook and the resulting consent decree.
Vladeck said the law allows fines up to $40,000 per violation. With a reported 50 million people affected, he said, the “maximum exposure” could reach into the billions of dollars.
It is more likely that, if the FTC found violations, Facebook would face far smaller but still substantial fines as well as other consequences.
Facebook has denied violating the agreement with the FTC, which did not respond to requests for comment Sunday.
But the surge of political and regulatory scrutiny over the weekend again turned a harsh spotlight on a company that has been scrambling to protect its reputation since allegations emerged about Russian agents using the social media platform in an attempt to manipulate American voters during the 2016 election season and beyond.
The latest revelations concern how people working for Cambridge Analytica, which the Trump campaign paid at least $6 million to assist in its digital operations, used an app to gather research on 270,000 users in 2014 and 2015.
But the number of affected people was many more — likely in the tens of millions — because the data routinely available to app developers in that era also included information on a user’s list of friends, including names, education, work histories, birthdays, likes, locations, photos, relationship statuses, and religious and political affiliations.
That kind of information is extremely valuable to political campaigns for tailoring messages, ads and fundraising pitches.
Though both Facebook and Cambridge Analytica have been embroiled in investigations in Washington and London for months, some of this weekend’s demands have taken on a more personal tone, focusing explicitly on Zuckerberg, who has not testified publicly on these matters in either capital.
Similar calls for official investigation came from several U.S. lawmakers, the European Union’s justice commissioner and a British lawmaker, Damian Collins, head of a parliamentary committee that has been investigating Facebook and Cambridge Analytica.
Facebook declined to comment on the requests for Zuckerberg to testify. The company said in a statement Sunday afternoon that it was renewing efforts to investigate what happened with the data that reached Cambridge Analytica.