Facebook Being Taken to Court By Canada's Privacy Watchdog

[ThePointblank]

Facebook is now facing a lawsuit from the Canadian Privacy Commissioner and the British Columbian Privacy Commissioner following an investigation by the two organizations that is alleging that Facebook violated Canadian privacy laws, and failed to take responsibility for protecting the privacy of information of Canadians. This investigation is just continued fall out from the Cambridge Analytica scandal that has rocked Facebook.

 

The Canadian investigation was triggered by reports that an app called "This is Your Digital Life," which encouraged users to complete a personality quiz collected the information of users and their Facebook friends, which was passed along to Cambridge Analytica. It is estimated that about 600,000 Canadians had their information passed along to Cambridge Analytica. Per the report, Facebook violated the laws in both Canada and British Columbia in the following ways:

 

1. Failed to obtain valid and meaningful consent of users;

2. Failed to obtain valid and meaningful consent of the friends of the installing users;

3. Failed to ensure there was adequate safeguards to protect user information;

4. Failed to be accountable for the user information under its control

 

Facebook in response has admitted to a "major breach of trust" but vehemently disputes the Canadian report, saying the following in an e-mail to the CBC:

 

Quote

After many months of good-faith cooperation and lengthy negotiations, we are disappointed that the OPC considers the issues raised in this report unresolved. There's no evidence that Canadians' data was shared with Cambridge Analytica, and we've made dramatic improvements to our platform to protect people's personal information.

 

We understand our responsibility to protect people's personal information, which is why we've proactively taken important steps towards tackling a number of issues raised in the report and worked with the OPC to offer additional concrete measures we can take to address their recommendations, which includes offering to enter into a compliance agreement.

 

As a result of this, the Privacy Commissioner has indicated that he has directed that his office will take down its Facebook page as it doesn't want to be associated with Facebook's privacy rules. Both commissioners are using the report to request more stringent rules when it comes to privacy, along with more meaningful fines for non-compliance.

 

Source:

 

CBC:

 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/privacy-watchdog-cambridge-analytica-facebook-1.5110304

 

[D13H4RD]

Facebook: "We understand our responsibility to protect people's personal information, which is why we've proactively taken important steps towards tackling a number of issues raised in the report and worked with the OPC tooffer additional concrete measures we can take toaddress their recommendations, which includes offering to enter into a compliance agreement."

 

Also Facebook: "Give us your e-mail account's password if you want to restore access to your account" 

[Bananasplit_00]

Good, poke Facebook even more. Shit needs to die

[Ethariel01]

And...... after 7 year in court costing the Canadian taxpayer a couple of million dollars, FB cops to a 250k fine........

[Salv8 (sam)]

20 hours ago, VegetableStu said:

sorry to be that guy, but how's the NCIX personal data mishandling case going?

there are so many people that have to take the blame that it's going to be awhile before it gets setteled...

also

facebook rn: 

 

[dalekphalm]

On 4/26/2019 at 3:39 AM, Ethariel01 said:

And...... after 7 year in court costing the Canadian taxpayer a couple of million dollars, FB cops to a 250k fine........

Likely they’d be on the hook for any legal fees too, regardless of whatever fine they end up with. 

 

In in any case, even if it costs the Canadian tax payer (me) money, I’m 100% on board still.