Cambridge Analytica scandal: Watchdog given green light to pursue Facebook

The Information Commissioner has been given the green light to pursue Facebook in the Federal Court over a data breach.

Under privacy laws, Facebook faces fines of over $1 billion for the potential breaches. Picture: istock

The Information Commissioner has been given the green light to pursue Facebook in the Federal Court, claiming a breach of over 300,000 Australians’ personal data as part of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Last month the Australian Information and Privacy Commissioner accused Facebook of exposing for sale and “political profiling” the personal data of up to 311,127 Australians after a Facebook app was used by the Cambridge Analytica consultancy to steal personal data from potential voters for campaigning purposes.

Under privacy laws, Facebook faces fines of over $1 billion for the potential breaches. Last year the US regulator the FTA last year fined Facebook a record $US5bn after it found the company was responsible for helping expose the personal data of up to 87 million Americans through Cambridge Analytica.

Cambridge Analytica’s clients included US President Donald Trump during his 2016 campaign.

In Federal Court action the Information and Privacy Commissioner alleged Facebook committed serious and repeated interferences with privacy in contravention of Australian privacy law.

The commissioner alleges that the personal information of Australian Facebook users was disclosed to the This is Your Digital Life app, later bought by Cambridge Analytica, in breach of the Privacy Act. This allowed it to be used for purposes including “political profiling, well outside users’ expectations”.

On Wednesday, the Federal Court of Australia granted leave to the Information Commissioner to serve legal documents on US-based Facebook Inc and Facebook Ireland.

In the past, Facebook has frustrated the ability of international regulators and individuals looking to sue Facebook, claiming the tech giant could not be served through its Australian operations.

Justice Tom Thawley found there was an initial case to be made out against Facebook Inc in the United States and Facebook Ireland to answer over the allegations.

“The material demonstrates a genuine argument about contravention, sufficient to justify causing the respondents to be subject to the litigation in Australia where the merit of that argument can be judicially determined,” Justice Thawley found in his judgment on Wednesday.

Australian Information Commissioner and Privacy Commissioner Angelene Falk welcomed the Court’s ruling saying it “opens the path for the case to move forward to the substance of the proceedings.”

The finding follows Monday’s decision by the Morrison government to instruct the ACCC to force Facebook and Google into a compulsory agreement with media companies to pay for content after the ACCC found the parties were unlikely to reach a commercial agreement voluntarily.