Facebook fails to protect 50 million users’ data from Trump-connected breach

Facebook failed to protect the data of more than 50 million of its users, according to reporting from the New York Timesand the Guardian. The tech giant’s security was breached when a researcher for Cambridge Analytica, a voter-profiling company connected to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, claimed he was using the data for academic purposes. Facebook never verified the researcher’s claims and, until this story broke, downplayed or denied the massive breach.

“This was a scam — and a fraud,” Paul Grewal, a vice president and deputy general counsel at Facebook, said to the Times. “We will take whatever steps are required to see that the data in question is deleted once and for all — and take action against all offending parties.”

But the damage is done. What’s more, those who know anything about how Facebook makes money, know that selling user data for profit is Facebook’s business model. “Facebook’s business model is to amass as much first-party and third-party data on you as possible, and slowly dole out access to it,” said Peter Eckersley, chief computer scientist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “If you’re using Facebook, you’re entrusting the company with records of everything you do. I think people have reason to be concerned about that.”

Some are concerned. Senator Amy Klobuchar called the news “a major breach that must be investigated” over Twitter. “It’s clear these platforms can’t police themselves,” she wrote. “Mark Zuckerberg needs to testify before Senate Judiciary.”

Read the full Times story here.

The United States has been slow to respond to Facebook’s and other tech giant’s growth and power. However, regulators in Europe are beginning to act. Last month a Belgian court threatened Facebook with a fine of $125 million if it continued to break the country’s privacy laws. “Facebook informs us insufficiently about gathering information about us, the kind of data it collects, what it does with that data and how long it stores it,” the Belgian court said in a statement. “It also does not gain our consent to collect and store all this information.”

Links:

How Trump Consultants Exploited the Facebook Data of Millions (New York Times, Mar. 17, 2018)

Here’s how Facebook makes money off you (Speed Matters, Aug. 26, 2016)

Sen. Klobuchar calls for investigation, Zuckerberg to testify (Twitter, Mar. 17, 2018)

Belgian court to Facebook: stop breaking privacy laws (Speed Matters, Feb. 26, 2018)