Facebook Sued over Cambridge Analytica Scandal

9 months after it was first revealed that Facebook has allowed a third party to illegally access the personal information of millions of its user, the social media giant received its first blow from the law regulators in the United States, when a lawsuit has been filed recently against Facebook by the attorney general of the District of Columbia.

The lawsuit from Karl Racine has sued Facebook for its involvement with Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy firm that harvested names and other important data of the Facebook users without their permission. The incident has affected more than 87 million users, started in the year 2014 but came to light only this March, sparking investigations across the world.

After the lawsuit has been filed, Facebook said in a statement that it is “reviewing the complaint and (looks) forward to continuing our discussions with attorneys general in D.C. and elsewhere”.

The move by the US regulators is seen as a strict action after a prolonged silence, as they have been facing immense pressure from members of Congress and the web users to discipline Facebook as the scandal has highlighted its reckless disregard for online privacy and security of its users and it continues to fail in its attempt to protect the privacy of its users.

Some of the critics of the Silicon Valley have also urged the government to slap severe fines and other penalties on Facebook, which will force the IT giant to rethink a business model that monetizes the most private details of its consumers' lives.

Though the investigative agency including the Federal Trade Commission, started investigating the firm Cambridge Analytica weeks after the controversy came to light. Facebook CEO was also made to face the Congress and assure the people it will honor its users' privacy settings but it was not tried in any court of law.

Even after the Cambridge Analytica scandal came to light, Facebook has received considerable criticism for the series of privacy steps, which it has taken but of no use. Even last week, Facebook has informed that as many as 6.8 million users' photos may have been improperly accessed by some third party apps. The new details also revealed Facebook’s extensive data sharing arrangements with corporate partners, which includes Amazon and Spotify.

Republican Frank Pallone, who is soon going to be the Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, with focus on technology, said, “It appears that Facebook has not been honest with Congress or the public about how it treats its users data. Based on these revelations, I’m concerned that Facebook may have provided the Committee with inaccurate, incomplete or misleading responses to our questions and we’ll be following-up”.

The attorney general of the District of Columbia Karl Racine has also informed that his office, “had discussions with a number of other states that are similarly interested in protecting the data and personal information of their consumers”. The case now proves to be a worse headache for Facebook.