Facebook sued for millions by Australian Privacy Commissioner over massive breach of user data
More than 300,000 Australians had their private information and communications harvested from Facebook. Now the Commissioner is seeking multimillion-dollar penalties.
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Australia’s privacy watchdog is seeking millions of dollars in penalties against Facebook in Federal Court, alleging the tech giant exposed private information of hundreds of thousands of Australians and allowed it “to be sold” for political profiling.
The unprecedented court action comes almost two years after the Cambridge Analytica scandal that saw sensitive data from 87 million users harvested, including the 311,000 Australians, and could see the court impose a $1.7 million penalty for each serious and repeated breach of privacy by the social network.
The lawsuit could also force Facebook to make further changes to the way it handles users’ information, experts warned, amid scathing criticisms of how it operates.
Australian Information and Privacy Commissioner Angelene Falk revealed she had filed the lawsuit against Facebook on Monday, and criticised the way the multibillion-dollar company handled the private details of its Australian users.
She said all companies operating in Australia had to be “transparent and accountable in the way they handle personal information,” and claimed the global social network had not lived up to its legal obligations.
“We consider the design of the Facebook platform meant that users were unable to exercise reasonable choice and control about how their personal information was disclosed,” Ms Falk said.
“Facebook’s default settings facilitated the disclosure of personal information, including sensitive information, at the expense of privacy.”
The Privacy Commissioner’s lawsuit alleged Facebook “seriously and or repeatedly” exposed the information of 311,127 Australian users between March 2014 and May 2015, through an app on Facebook’s platform that many of those users did install or even know about.
“Unless those individuals undertook a complex process of modifying their settings on Facebook, their personal information was disclosed by Facebook to the This is Your Digital Life app by default,” the lawsuit claimed.
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“Facebook did not adequately inform the affected Australian individuals of the manner in which their personal information would be disclosed or that it could be disclosed to an app installed by a friend.”
Information gathered using the app by data scientist Aleksandr Kogan was later sold to shadowy data firm Cambridge Analytica, which allegedly used it to create detailed psychographic profiles that were exploited to influence voters.
The Commissioner alleged Facebook allowed private communications and personal details to be collected, and did not take “reasonable steps” to protect users due to “systemic failures to comply with Australian privacy laws”.
The lawsuit also noted that Facebook had “been unable to provide the Commissioner with a precise record” of information harvested and sold to shadowy data analysis firm Cambridge Analytica.
The Federal Court could issue penalties of $1.7 million for each serious or repeated privacy breach, though it’s not yet clear how many breaches by Facebook a court could find.
Swinburne University social media major director Dr Belinda Barnet said the legal action was a long time coming but could force Facebook to make bigger changes to protect user privacy.
“Australia could make a difference. The (Commission) has shown it’s got teeth and it intends to use them,” Dr Barnet said.
“It seems the only way that Facebook makes changes is when authorities crack down on them with legal action. The vast majority of changes so far have been cosmetic changes.”
But a Facebook spokesman said the company had “made major changes to our platforms in consultation with international regulators” to protect users’ privacy following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and had provided more controls for users.
“We’ve actively engaged with the (Office of the Australian Information Commissioner) over the past two years as part of their investigation,” the spokesman said. “We’re unable to comment further as this is now before the Federal Court.”