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FTC Probing Facebook For Use of Personal Data: Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Facebook is under investigation by a U.S. privacy watchdog over the use of personal data of 50 million users by a data analytics firm to help elect President Donald Trump. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is probing whether Facebook violated terms of a 2011 consent decree of its handing of user data that was transferred to Cambridge Analytica without their knowledge, according to a person familiar with the matter. Under the 2011 settlement, Facebook agreed to get user consent for certain changes to privacy settings as part of a settlement of federal charges that it deceived consumers and forced them to share more personal information than they intended. That complaint arose after the company changed some user settings without notifying its customers, according to an FTC statement at the time. If the FTC finds Facebook violated terms of the consent decree, it has the power to fine the company thousands of dollars a day per violation.
They watch it constantly eroding.
Amazing how Obama can target voters using facebook data and it's lauded as smart and effective.
Trump targets voters and facebook doesn't care before the election(*), but now months later it's an obscene violation of peoples' privacy.
Were any laws broken? If it's illegal to hire non-citizens to do campaign research, how does the Hillary campaign paying Christopher Steele get a pass?
Is this just a company whinging about a violation of their TOS, after the fact, while ignoring hundreds of other companies who do the same thing?
What exactly is the alleged infraction here?
(*) Facebook was informed of the "breach" many months before the election, and literally didn't care.
It's already public knowledge that the same information was shared with the Obama reelection campaign but no one complained at the time because, well, you know...