Social media giant Facebook and political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica are facing a class action lawsuit in California that alleges they obtained information belonging to 50 million of Facebook’s users without permission.
According to a Reuters news report, Lauren Price, a Maryland resident, has filed the first of many potential class-action lawsuits seeking damages over Facebook’s ability to protect user data and Cambridge Analytica’s use of that data to support Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Increase in Political Messages During Elections
The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court in San Jose, California, just hours after Facebook was blamed in a shareholder lawsuit filed in San Francisco for a drop in its stock price after news of the data harvesting broke. In her complaint, Price accused Facebook and Cambridge Analytica of negligence and violating a California unfair competition law.
She said the harvesting contradicted Facebook’s privacy policy, which states that user trust is important to them and that they would not share information without users’ permission or notice. The plaintiff said she saw an unprecedented increase in political messaging on her Facebook page during the campaign. The complaint is asking for unspecified damages, including possible punitive damages.
How to Protect Your Information
The issues raised by Cambridge Analytica’s data mining is important and should make us all think about what we do on Facebook and how we can better protect our private information. Here are a few steps you can take:
- Stay away from third-party apps that give you quizzes or tests and then take your information.
- Check the apps on your phone to see which ones use your Facebook data. Even after you delete them, the connection with Facebook might still exist.
- Keep an eye on any type of suspicious activity like friend requests from people you don’t know. Also, watch out for messages with links. Check your security settings often.
- Change your password often and log out of Facebook after each use.
If you believe that your information has been compromised or used without your permission, you may be eligible to band together with other plaintiffs and join a class action lawsuit. Contact an experienced California class action lawyer to obtain more information about pursuing your legal rights.
Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-cambridge-analytica-lawsuits/facebook-cambridge-analytica-sued-in-u-s-by-users-over-data-harvesting-idUSKBN1GX1XK
