Facebook Faces Expanded Federal Data and Privacy Investigations



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WASHINGTON – Facebook said Monday it was confronted with an extension of federal user data sharing investigations with Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm, with more government agencies investigating the matter and reviewing the statements of the company. social network about the incident. 19659002] The Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have each broadened their investigations at Cambridge Analytica by also focusing on Facebook, the Silicon Valley company said. In addition, the Securities and Exchange Commission has opened an investigation into the public statements of the social network about Cambridge Analytica, said Facebook

"We cooperate with officials in the United States and beyond." "We have provided public testimony, answered questions and are committed to continuing our help as their work continues."

The Washington Post reported on expanded federal investigations and the involvement of the S.E.C. The second. the F.B.I. declined to comment; Representatives of the Department of Justice did not immediately postpone the calls for comments.

Facebook's growing interest in federal agencies is the latest revelation of the March revelations, when the New York Times and others report that the world's largest social network has mismanaged data from millions of its users. Cambridge Analytica, a British political consulting firm linked to the Trump campaign, used this data to build psychographic profiles of US voters.

Reports sparked an uproar with authorities in the United States and Britain. demanding that Facebook answer questions about how it protects people's online data. Facebook is facing an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission, which is investigating whether the company has violated a confidentiality agreement with the agency. And in May, The Times reported that the Department of Justice and F.B.I. had opened investigations on Cambridge Analytica.

Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Facebook, apologized for the data leak and said the social network needed to do better. In April, under the light of television cameras, Zuckerberg appeared before Congress for two days to answer questions about Cambridge Analytica. Later, he also spoke to regulators in Europe.

Facebook has since continued to disclose some of its data practices. In a 747-page document that she sent Friday to the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee, the company said it was sharing user information with 52 manufacturers of hardware and software, some of which are based in China. Ashkan Soltani, a former chief technologist at the FTC, said the expanded federal investigations and the increased interest of agencies in this regard were "very important because means that the government is not only interested in breaches of privacy, but is interested in a wide range of damage. "

The initial federal user data surveys of Facebook and Cambridge Analytica focused on Cambridge Analytica." But District Attorneys in Northern California, with FBI officials from the San Francisco office, SEC officials In San Francisco and FTC officials, have recently interviewed at least one former employee of Cambridge Analytica and that the majority of the Facebook-based query, two people familiar with the surveys said.

A third person familiar with the Surveys said the turn to Facebook in surveys Over the last four to six weeks

an important questioning focused on Facebook's claims that Cambridge Analytica had misled it, people said. In many public statements made by social network leaders, including Mr. Zuckerberg, after the revelations Data manipulation, Facebook has repeatedly claimed that Cambridge Analytica told him that he was collecting data solely for academic purposes. a quiz that accompanied a quiz application used to collect user data, which was then provided to Cambridge Analytica, said the data could also be used for commercial purposes, according to a copy reviewed by the Times. The sale of user data would have been a flagrant violation of company rules at that time, but the social network does not appear to have regularly verified that the applications were complying with its rules.

The final formulation of the conditions for using the questionnaire is most likely unknowable; Facebook officials said they removed the quiz application in December 2015 when they discovered the data collection.

Facebook officials said the company was maintaining its previous statements that it had cracked down in 2015 on businesses and apps that were harvesting user data. including Cambridge Analytica.

Follow Cecilia Kang, Matthew Rosenberg and Sheera Frenkel on Twitter: @ceciliakang and @AllMattNYT and @sheeraf . Kang and Matthew Rosenberg reported from Washington and Sheera Frenkel from Los Angeles.

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