The scandal over the illegal use of user data by Facebook and Cambridge Analytica
One of the most important digital business in the field of personal data protection is undoubtedly the "Facebook Cambridge Analytica" scandal.
One of the biggest data leak stories of all time. The case concerns a history of the illegal use of Facebook users' data for political purposes. In 2016, Cambridge analytica exploited data from Facebook, which contained information illegally collected by the social network's executives. More than 80 million users of the social network are affected by this data leak.
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The facts are simple. During the 2016 campaigns, the British data analytics company Cambridge Analytica used data from the user in collusion with Facebook, data collected without their explicit consent. The goal was to analyze them and then help candidate Donald Trump define his election strategy, through highly targeted posts and messages. Cambridge analytica had been collecting data since 2014, two years before its practical use.
In 2018 around April 17, the social network acknowledges that it has provided personal data of Users regardless of their status, whether they are subscribers on Facebook or not, whether they are browsing Facebook or other sites. In other words, a large-scale intrusion. The data stolen in complicity with Facebook by Cambridge Analytica, served in various events. First in 2015 in the Republican Party elections in addition to the presidential elections in 2016.
the 80 million users affected by this data leak are distributed as more than 70 million Americans, one million Britons, 0.6 million million Australians and 0.3 Canadians. And the rest, all from different backgrounds.
If Facebook apologized note that this greatly affected its shares on the stock exchange during the deal. The consequence was greater on the other side for the British firm. Indeed, in 2018 precisely at the beginning of May, Cambridge Analytica publicly claimed bankruptcy and had to close the doors. A company will take over called Propia, made up largely of former members of the Cambridge Analytica corps. At the helm is the head of the former British company, Matt Oczkowski, head of scientific data.
Authority regulation of communication information technology United Kingdom, the ICO (Information Commissioner's Office), THE CNIL in France, ordered Facebook to pay a fine of 500,000 euros, which is equivalent to €565,000. This huge fine is the most serious that this authority could inflict on American society. Facebook, for its part, intends to appeal decision. Meanwhile, the ICO justifies this sanction by the various irregularities in Facebook's attitude to this such as not obtaining clear and explicit consent from the users before making personal data available to a firm third. And this to serve political intentions. Defending society Anna Benckert states that " the ICO had not been in to prove that data from British users of the social network had been recovered by Cambridge Analytica. ».
Although the case has exploded since 2016, this collateral damage and its effects continue to persist. We're waiting to see what Facebook's call will do. For the moment the American company is still ordered to pay this big fine a first of the middle.
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