Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg named in DC lawsuit over Cambridge Analytica data breach

In one of  rare instances where a tech scion has been targeted and pulled legally, District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine on 20 October ded Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s name in lawsuit related to Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal.  Facebook data privacy scandal centered around compromise of data and identifiable information of "up to 87 million people'', allegedly leaked by political consulting and strategic communication firm Cambridge Analytica. firm was able to access personal information of millions of Facebook users mainly due to “inequate safeguards” and lack of privacy that me it easier for third parties to engage in illegal activities such as data harvesting of users via an app called ‘thisisyourdigitiallife’.   

"Our discovery has revealed that far from being a passive observer, Mr. Zuckerberg was actively engaged, actively involved in making decisions that allowed third-party apps. to [scrape] user data," Racine said in a televised remark on Wednesday as he sued Facebook CEO. 

Zuckerberg was 'personally involved' in data breach scandal 

Taking to his official Twitter handle, District of Columbia Attorney Racine said that a probe into scandal has revealed that Facebook’s Chief Executive Zuckerberg was “personally involved in decisions related to Cambridge Analytica and Facebook’s failure to protect user data.” In 2018, a lawsuit filed into case alleged that Facebook’s flawed policies and lackaisical attitude enabled third-party data access and compromise of user privacy.

Facebook breached Consumer Protection Procedures Act and is liable for civil damages for offense, attorney general’s office said in filing. Researchers at Cambridge University h at time disclosed in a paper that company was able to harvest data that "can be used to automatically and accurately predict a range of highly sensitive personal attributes including sexual orientation, ethnicity, religious and political views, personality traits, intelligence, happiness, use of dictive substances, parental separation, age, and gender.” This was possible due to insufficient measures taken by Facebook to protect data privacy of its customers, researchers argued. 

“Our continuing investigation revealed that he was personally involved in decisions related to Cambridge Analytica and Facebook’s failure to protect user data,” District of Columbia Attorney Karl Racine said in a tweet. 

He went to state that Zuckerberg himself reviewed “hundreds of thousands of pages of documents produced in litigation and completed a wide range of depositions including former employees and whistleblowers.” 

“We’ve taken our obligation to investigate wrongdoing very seriously — and Facebook should take its responsibility to protect users just as seriously,” Racine tweeted.

Despite Facebook’s efforts to halt investigation in 2019, a cache of internal documents were released by former employee and self-styled whistleblower, Brittany Kaiser that revealed Cambridge Analytica’s illegal activities using Facebook’s data to manipulate elections in democracies worldwide. Kaiser, in an explosive report released in January, alleged that Facebook’s stolen data was used by third-party entities to target voters for former US President Donald Trump’s campaign in 2016. This led to a $5 billion FTC fine for tech giant and mounting legal problems. It was also reported that Cambridge Analytica and its parent entity SCL Elections operated “with due knowledge” of Facebook and some of targeted political s h involvement of Facebook’s own staff. 

Facebook paid $643,000 penalty after ICO probe held firm 'accountable'

CEO Mark Zuckerberg, however, continued to argue that he h learned about data privacy scandal involving Cambridge Analytica from a December 2015 Guardian article after paper broke Senator Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign fraud that used psychological data from research covering tens of millions of Facebook users. Meanwhile, Cambridge Analytica's chief executive demanded that Facebook must grant users property rights on ir data to protect ir privacy.

mass data breach also prompted legal action against Google by users in UK who fell victim to data compromise. In 2019, Facebook, following backlash and legal repercussions, Facebook h agreed to pay an estimated $643,000 [£500,000] penalty to UK Information Commissioner's Office for its role in  Cambridge Analytica scandal after ICO's investigation that held firm accountable.