Australian Facebook users likely had personal details harvested but regulators may not act
A FORMER privacy commissioner says Australians almost certainly had personal information harvested in Facebook’s data breach, as the social network reaches crisis point.
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AUSTRALIANS have almost certainly had personal information harvested and sold as part of Facebook’s growing privacy scandal but national regulators are under-resourced and may be unable to prevent it happening again, a former privacy commissioner warned yesterday.
The news came as the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission refused to confirm whether it would investigate the unauthorised use of personal information from 50 million Facebook users, and as the multibillion-dollar social network called an “all hands on deck” meeting amid legal action, user protests, and international investigations over the data breach.
The beleaguered social network also issued a statement about its deepening privacy crisis yesterday, assuring users that it understood “the seriousness of the issue” and was “working around the clock to get all the facts and take appropriate action moving forward”.
“The entire company is outraged we were deceived (by the sale and use of personal information taken without consent),” the company said.
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“We are committed to vigorously enforcing our policies to protect people’s information and will take whatever steps are required to see that this happens.”
Neither Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg nor chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg spoke publicly about the data breach, however, that saw a university professor sell the personal information of 50 million Facebook users to Cambridge Analytica, which allegedly used it to influence US voters during Donald Trump’s election campaign.
The firm denies the allegations, though its board yesterday voted to suspend chief executive Alexander Nix.
Facebook also faces potential action from the US Federal Trade Commission, a British parliamentary committee, and a class-action lawsuit lodged by shareholders yesterday who alleged the company did not disclose the data breach, leading to artificially inflated share prices.
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Facebook’s market value has plummeted by $52 billion over the past two days.
But the social network is yet to see regulatory action from Australia and could avoid it entirely, according to a privacy expert.
While Australian Information and Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim said his Office was “making inquiries with Facebook” to determine whether Australians were affected by the data breach, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission declined to say whether the issue would be investigated as part of its upcoming inquiry into digital platforms.
A spokesman said the Commission would “review submissions made to consider what issues to concentrate on” after their April 3 deadline.
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But former Victorian privacy commissioner, now based at La Trobe University, David Watts said even though personal data was very likely taken from Australian Facebook users, regulators would find it difficult, if not impossible, to fight.
“It would be remarkable if there wasn’t one Australian with one US friend whose information wasn’t gobbled up with all of this data,” he said.
“But the regulators dealing with these issues have budgets in the millions and Facebook has budgets in the billions. Batteries of lawyers don’t come cheaply. It’s a really disproportionate battle.”
Mr Watts said the Privacy Commissioner and ACCC would also face jurisdictional issues in trying to regulate a global company with offices around the world.
Originally published as Australian Facebook users likely had personal details harvested but regulators may not act
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