Attorney General George Jepsen said he is co-chairing a bipartisan coalition of 37 state and territorial attorneys general in demanding answers from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg after news reports indicate that personal information from at least 50 million profiles was given to software developers without notifying the users.
Jepsen said Facebook’s policies had allowed third-party software developers to access personal data of “friends” of people, and the information was sold to data firm Cambridge Analytica without informing users.
“The situation involving Facebook and Cambridge Analytica raises significant concerns about Facebook’s policies and practices relating to user privacy, as well as the truthfulness and clarity of representations made to users concerning the uses of their data,” Jepsen said, adding the group is “engaging” Facebook to ensure their privacy concerns are addressed.
In a letter submitted to Facebook on Monday, Jepsen’s coalition is inquiring about the social networking site’s policies and practices including the clarity of their terms of service, how they monitored what developers did with the data and Facebook’s oversight of the data given to developers.
Others questions include whether Facebook had safeguards or audits in place to ensure developers were not misusing data, when the site learned about the breach, and how many states were affected.
Connecticut is leading the multi-state coalition with Attorneys General Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Tim Fox of Montana, Ellen Rosenblum of Oregon and Marty Jackley of South Dakota. Attorneys general and assistant attorneys general from numerous other states and U.S. territories also joined Monday’s letter to hold Facebook accountable.
“Businesses like Facebook must comply with the law when it comes to how they use their customers’ personal data,” Shapiro said.
The Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, on Monday said it is currently investigating Facebook practices.
News reports earlier this month indicate that Cambridge Analytica had ties to President Donald Trump’s campaign. FTC last week said they sent a letter to Facebook with questions asking how they allowed data to be used by consultants in the Trump campaign.
A CNN report is included in this story.
