European Union Pledges to Probe Facebook's Handling of User Data
March 19 2018 - 8:38AM
Dow Jones News
By Natalia Drozdiak
BRUSSELS--European Union officials said they would probe
Facebook Inc.'s handling of user data on Monday, after the social
network said a firm linked to the 2016 Trump campaign improperly
kept data for years despite saying it had destroyed those
records.
"Allegations of misuse of Facebook user data is an unacceptable
violation of our citizens' privacy rights. The European Parliament
will investigate fully, calling digital platforms to account," the
parliament's president, Antonio Tajani, said on his official
Twitter account.
The EU's justice chief, V ra Jourová, described the news that
data was misused for political purpose as "horrifying, if
confirmed," adding that she expected "companies to take more
responsibility when handling our personal data."
Ms. Jourová said she would seek further clarifications from
Facebook and would discuss the matter with U.S. government
officials on her scheduled trip to the U.S. this week. Ms. Jourová
is set to meet with Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Commerce
Secretary Wilbur Ross.
Data privacy is a sensitive issue in Europe, with rules
generally stricter than in the U.S. and set to become even more so
when new regulations enter into force in May. Under the EU's
General Data Protection Regulation, companies who breach the rules
could be hit with fines as high as 4% of global revenue.
The EU officials' comments come after U.S. and British lawmakers
slammed Facebook over the weekend for not providing more
information about how data firm Cambridge Analytica came to access
information about potentially tens of millions of users without
their explicit permission.
Damian Collins, a U.K. lawmaker who chairs a parliamentary
committee on media and culture, said he intended to ask Facebook
Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg to testify, or send a senior
executive to do so, as part of an inquiry into how social-media
manipulation affected the outcome of Britain's referendum on
exiting the European Union.
Late Friday, Facebook said it had suspended Cambridge and two
individuals-- Aleksandr Kogan, a psychology professor from the
University of Cambridge, and Christopher Wylie, who helped found
Cambridge--after hearing reports they had violated Facebook
policies that govern how third-party developers can deploy user
data. Facebook didn't elaborate on the source of its
information.
Write to Natalia Drozdiak at natalia.drozdiak@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 19, 2018 09:23 ET (13:23 GMT)
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