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Facebook slapped with lawsuits from users after data breach scandal

Published: 13:30 23 Mar 2018 GMT

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Facebook acted with 'absolute disregard' to users' privacy, according to one lawsuit

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has reportedly been slapped with four lawsuits in US courts this week after a political consultancy abused the social media network’s permissions to gather user data.

Cambridge Analytica is accused of harvesting data from Facebook profiles to influence elections. The data firm is thought to have used the data to swing the 2016 US Presidential election in favour of Donald Trump. It is also believed to play a role in the Brexit vote.

READ: Facebook fined by South Korea's telecoms regulator as Zuckerberg addresses data breach

Now users are suing Facebook with four lawsuits filed in federal courts in the past week, according to news website SF Gate.

One of the lawsuits, filed on Tuesday by Lauren Price of Maryland in San Jose, claims Facebook acted with "absolute disregard" for her personal information despite stating that it would not disclose her data without permission.

Price alleges that she was "frequently targeted with political ads while using Facebook” and is seeking financial restitution for claims of unfair business practices and negligence.

The lawsuit names Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg; chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg; and board members Marc Andreessen, Peter Thiel, Reed Hastings, Erskine Bowles, Susan Desmond-Hellman and Jan Koum as defendants.

FTC investigating Facebook

The complaint flags reports that Facebook is being investigated by the US Federal Trade Commission into whether it violated the terms of a 2011 decree regarding its privacy protections.

Facebook has lost nearly US$50mln in market capitalisation since the data leak was disclosed, the complaint noted.

READ: Facebook's handling of data scandal will determine its future, says Goldman Sachs

The claims were first reported by the New York Times and the Observer last week after former Cambridge Analytica employee Chris Wylie blew the whistle on the company.

Wylie said the firm got the data from University of Cambridge lecturer Aleksandr Kogan, who created a personality quiz that was billed as "a research app used by psychologists”. Kogan is accused of breaking the social network's rules for app developers by passing on the data he gained by accessing information on 270,000 accounts through Facebook's Login feature.

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