EU Scoffs at Facebook, Sorry simply is not enough
“A multi-billion dollar social media platform saying it is sorry simply is not enough,” Andrea Jelinek, chair of the group of EU data protection authorities, said in a statement on Thursday.
Facebook has ben faced with touch choices and a resulting congressional appearance after it was revealed that billions of data were used illegally by Cambridge Analytica.
Mark Zuckerberg also revealed that 87 million Facebook users whose data was leaked to Cambridge Analytica.
The Facebook CEO also admitted that his information was compromised in response to a question from Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) during Wednesday’s House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing.
“Was your data included in the data sold to the malicious third parties — your personal data?” Eshoo asked Zuckerberg.
“Yes,” he replied.
After the hearing, the European Union which is waiting to commence the use of the GDPR laws. The EU privacy watchdogs will look deeper into the harvesting of personal data from social networks for economic or political purposes said
“This is why we are creating a Social Media Working Group. What we are seeing today is most likely only one instance of the much wider spread practice of harvesting personal data from social media for economic or political reasons,” Jelinek said after a two-day meeting of the regulators.
The group must formulate a long-term strategy, the statement read, although it did not include any details on the kinds of steps it may take.
Britain’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is leading the European probe into the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
A landmark data privacy law will enter into force in the EU on May 25, giving Europeans the right to know what data is stored on them and the right to have it deleted.
Under the new law, companies will need the explicit consent of users before using their data and they will have to be more specific about how they use it. Companies who break the law could face fines of up to 4 percent of their annual global turnover.
