FBI, FTC and SEC join Justice Ministry investigations into Cambridge Analytica revelations on Facebook – TechCrunch



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An alphabetic soup of federal agencies is now looking into the disclosures of Facebook and the company's statements about its reaction to the misuse of its user information by the Cambridge Analytica policy consultancy.

The Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission joined the Department of Justice by examining how the personal information of 71 million Americans was distributed by Facebook and used by Cambridge Analytica, according to a Washington Post report released Monday. 19659002] According to the post, the investigation has focused on what Facebook has disclosed about its sharing of information with Cambridge Analytica and on whether these disclosures match the timeline established by the investigators of the government. The fear, for Facebook, is that the government may decide that the company has not sufficiently disclosed to investors or the public the extent of the misallocation of user data. Another concern is whether the Cambridge Analytica decision violated the terms of an agreement with the Federal Trade Commission.

The redoubled efforts of so many divisions could potentially trick Facebook's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, who was introduced to Congress with Facebook. officials to testify about violations. People who knew about the investigation told the Post that the testimony of the officials was being examined.

In a statement, Facebook noted that he had received questions from various agencies and that he was cooperating

. confirmed that he was investigating Facebook in March.

Acting Director Tom Pahl stated at the time:

The FTC is firmly and fully committed to using all of its tools to protect the privacy of consumers. Among these tools are mainly enforcement actions against companies that do not respect their confidentiality promises, in particular to comply with Privacy Shield, or who commit unfair acts causing significant harm to consumers in violation of the law. FTC. Companies that have settled previous FTC shares must also comply with the FTC order provisions imposing confidentiality and data security requirements. As a result, the FTC takes very seriously recent press reports raising substantial concerns about Facebook's privacy practices. Today, the FTC confirms that it has opened a non-public investigation into these practices.

Multiple Investigations Conducted by US and British Agencies on How Cambridge Analytica Accessed and Explained Data on Social Media Users in Political Campaigns

It Is Not Likely (Impossible to Read) That Facebook Suffers the same fate, and the company's share price has already recovered from the negative impact of the scandal on the market capitalization of the social network. On the contrary, the outstanding investigations show that government regulators (and legislators) can be involved in the operations of the company.

As with everything else in Washington, it's always the hiding – never the crime. [ad_2]
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