Facebook scandal: First Australian Cambridge Analytica data breach victim says she is ‘in shock’

FACEBOOK’S data scandal has officially hit Australia, as the first of 311,000 victims was warned her details had been stolen and sold. This is what they accessed.

EXCLUSIVE

THE FIRST Australian woman identified as a victim of Facebook’s biggest privacy scandal to date said she was still in “shock” that the social network had allowed her details to be sold to a third party.

Dominique Maber, 24, who is also known as DJ Lionette, said she discovered her private information had been harvested in a message from Facebook yesterday, and was now considering whether to delete or disable her Facebook account.

“I can’t believe this just happened,” she told News Corp.

“They could know my shopping habits. They could know where I live. I didn’t want to give this information away. I didn’t sign up for this.”

But Ms Maber was just the first of many Australians who will receive a warning from the social media giant, as more than 300,000 local users were estimated to have had private information, such as their location, political and religious views, phone number, and even private messages, siphoned from their Facebook accounts.

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Dominique Maber received a notification from Facebook telling her that Cambridge Analytica had mined all her personal data through an app her friend was using. Poicture: Troy Snook

The data was sold to UK-based firm Cambridge Analytica, which allegedly used it to influence voters in the 2016 US election and others.

Ms Maber, from the New South Wales Central Coast, said she had no idea her information could have been swept up in the scandal, although suspected one of her American friends had used the suspect app that took victims’ details.

Facebook’s warning about the data breach disappeared from her account after sending a message, she said, so she was still trying to find out what to do next to secure her account or how much information was taken from her profile.

“I’ve had Facebook since I was really young — since it started — so there is so much of my life on there,” she said.

“It was so huge in the beginning and I was posting every part of my life on there, which is really silly and naive given what we now know about it.”

Dominique Maber before her live gig (DJ Lionette). She was issued with a privacy breach notification on Facebook stating that some of her data had been shared with Cambridge Analytica by the app “This Is Your Digital Life”. Picture: Adrian Fowler

Ms Maber said she was now considering whether to deactivate or “get rid of Facebook,” but her work as a DJ made it tricky as she used Facebook to talk to fans.

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, who this week told US lawmakers his data had also been harvested as part of the 2014 breach, personally apologised for the data breach, and said the company would roll out changes to the way it handled users’ information over the next two years.

“We didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibility and that was a big mistake,” Mr Zuckerberg said, as part of his two-day testimony on Capitol Hill.

“It was my mistake and I’m sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and I’m responsible for what happens here.”

Facebook users in the UK and US have filed a joint class action lawsuit over the data breach, seeking a minimum of $US1000 for every victim.