Facebook, Cambridge Analytica face lawsuit over privacy loss

The warning came as the BJP on Wednesday attacked Congress, questioning the party’s relations with Cambridge Analytica, accused of harvesting personal data from 50 million Facebook users without their knowledge.

Facebook says it thought the third parties with whom Kogan shared the data had deleted it in response to the social media company’s demands, but has now learned they didn’t.

Facing criticism from users, Facebook announced it would be suspending Cambridge Analytica, Kogan and others.

“Cambridge Analytica will try to pick at whatever mental weakness or vulnerability that we think you have and try to warp your perception of what’s real around you”, Wylie said in an interview with ABC News. We should not have trusted the certification that they gave us. And Sonos, which makes speakers and other electronics, said it is pulling advertising from Facebook, Instagram, Google, and Twitter for a week. She said she was sorry the company let so many people down. There are certain details that will be made public on Facebook no matter what you do. Wall Street analysts who follow Facebook don’t seem anxious yet, despite the sharp drop in the company’s stock this week.

While the disappearance of Mozilla’s modest ad spend is hardly going to bring down The Social Network™, the organisation’s decision to “pause” its Facebook advertising came after Zuckerland tried to assure Mozilla that the conditions that prevailed in 2015 (when Cambridge Analytica breached its terms of service) had always been addressed. It can, for instance, single out users who live in Kansas and have listed Bernie Sanders and same-sex marriage as their interests – which is exactly what some Russian-linked ads did as part of a propaganda campaign during the 2016 USA presidential campaign. In the case at hand, app creator Aleksandr Kogan sold his data to Cambridge Analytica, violating Facebook’s usage policies.

The fact is, most advertisers need Facebook as a platform because its reach is so great, so any break is likely to only be temporary, said Allen Adamson, founder of brand-marketing consultancy Metaforce.

For its part, Facebook points the finger of blame at Cambridge Analytica. All apps with access to big amounts of user information prior to the company’s data access policy revisions four years ago will now be investigated.

Facebook representatives consist of the Deputy Chief Privacy Officer Rob Sherman met US congressional staff for almost two hours on Wednesday which is all set to continue meetings on Capitol Hill on Thursday. Various U.S. congressional committees are also seeking answers, although Democrats and Republicans have disagreed on what steps to take.

There maybe a few people leaving the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Central Intelligence Agency soon, so this could be an option for them.

Amid all the unwanted attention Facebook is now receiving, the company’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, is making the media rounds, doing damage control. Facebook “doesn’t even know the power of its own platform”, he said.

Perhaps in a last ditch effort to bury the scandal, Facebook suspended Cambridge Analytica a day before the Times story emerged and threatened to sue Carole Cadwalladr, the reporter who broke the story for The Guardian. Coming as Congress investigated how Russian Federation used tech companies to influence the 2016 election, it was considered by many in Washington DC to be the bare minimum lawmakers could do to address the problem. Of course, in marketing, big data is routinely used to better offer the goods and services consumers seek.

The current scandal has fueled a nascent #deletefacebook movement.

There are no signs, so far, that users are leaving in droves – and advertisers go where the eyeballs are, so they aren’t leaving either. “If there was a way to recover these photos, I would deactivate immediately”, Daniel Schwartz, who lives in Atlanta, said in an email.