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Facebook’s high-profile legal battle with the High Court draws attention to the company’s actions concerning a personality quiz on Facebook, which has since been linked to the Cambridge Analytica data breach.
The High Court is set to hear evidence of the 2014 data breach, which saw Cambridge Analytica and an application developer collect user information from more than 90 million Facebook users without their knowledge or consent.
“Facebook entities did not adequately inform the affected Australian individuals of the manner in which their personal information would be disclosed, or that it could be disclosed to an app installed by a friend,” the submissions to the High Court read.
“The Facebook entities failed to take reasonable steps to protect those individuals’ personal information from unauthorised disclosure.”
Later, it was revealed that the data from Cambridge Analytica was utilised to target political messages during the United States’ 2016 Trump election campaign using psychological profiling.
Facebook promptly severed relations with Cambridge Analytica after the problem was discovered in 2018 and issued a warning to those who might have been impacted.
The company has since taken additional steps to limit third parties’ access to data further.
Since 2020, Facebook has been involved in a legal struggle in Australia to avoid being charged with violating the nation’s privacy rules.
The High Court will be informed by the Australian Information Commissioner that over 300,000 Australian Facebook users’ privacy was gravely and persistently violated by Facebook between March 12, 2014, and May 1, 2015.
The commissioner claims in court filings that disclosing a user’s personal information to a third-party app was a blatant violation of Australian privacy rules.
The outcome of this case could set a precedent for online data privacy going forward, and tech companies, government bodies, and consumers alike will closely watch it.
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