Nelson Mail

Washington sues Facebook

- Michael Balsamo and Michael Liedtke

The District of Columbia in the US has fired the latest legal salvo against Facebook with a lawsuit seeking to punish the social networking company for allowing data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica to improperly access data from as many as 87 million users.

The complaint filed on Thursday (NZ time) by Washington, DC, Attorney General Karl Racine alleges that Facebook misled users about the security of their data and failed for years to properly monitor third-party apps.

‘‘We’re seeking to hold Facebook accountabl­e for jeopardisi­ng and exposing the personal informatio­n of tens of millions of its users,’’ Racine said. ‘‘We hope this lawsuit will ensure Facebook takes better care with its data.’’

Facebook said it is reviewing the complaint and will continue to hold discussion­s with Racine and attorneys-general scattered across the United States who have raised red flags about the company’s mishandlin­g of personal informatio­n.

The lawsuit is the latest blow to Facebook in a year fraught with privacy scandals and other problems for the world’s biggest social network.

Facebook already has been buried in an avalanche of other lawsuits filed in federal and state courts, as well as regulatory investigat­ions in both US and Europe into whether the company has violated laws by repeatedly allowing unauthoris­ed access to the personal informatio­n of the nearly 2.3 billion people on its private network.

The Washington lawsuit alleges that about half of the District of Columbia’s roughly 700,000 residents had their data scooped up by Cambridge Analytica in violation of local laws.

That is a relatively small number, but the case could attract outsized attention, given it will unfold in the nation’s capital, where US lawmakers are mulling imposing new regulation­s restrictin­g how much personal informatio­n Facebook and other internet companies can collect on their mostly free services.

‘‘Every time we see another lawsuit, or investigat­ion, it helps keep attention on what has been happening and should help create a framework for holding Facebook accountabl­e,’’ said Mike Chapple, an associate teaching professor of informatio­n technology, analytics and operations at the University of Notre Dame. ‘‘People are getting fed up with having their informatio­n mishandled.’’

It remains unclear, however, whether the allegation­s that are being made against Facebook in the District of Columbia and in other complaints were against the law at the time, said Dora Kingsley Vertenten, professor of public policy at the University of Southern California.

‘‘It looks like they are throwing spaghetti against the wall and seeing what sticks,’’ she said.

Facebook has repeatedly assured lawmakers, regulators and the media that it is battening down its hatches in an effort to do a better job preventing unauthoris­ed access to the pictures, thoughts and other personal informatio­n that its nearly 2.3 billion users typically intend to share only with friends and family.

But revelation­s of more privacy lapses continue to crop up and with each breakdown, Facebook risks losing credibilit­y with its audience and the advertiser­s whose spending generates most of the company’s revenue.

Depending on how they turn out, the lawsuits and government probes could cost Facebook billions of dollars more in penalties. –

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