Facebook-Cambridge Analytica Data
Breach Scandal – Case Study
Facebook’s biggest scandal hit in March 2018, when the Guardian
and New York Times reported that a firm called Global Science
Research had harvested data from millions of Facebook users in
2013 – without their explicit consent.
This was possible because a previous version of Facebook’s
privacy policy had allowed apps to access data about users’ friends
– such as their name, birthday and location. This had enabled
Global Science Research to gather information about 87 million
Facebook users even though only around 30,000 people had
actually used their app. These details were later sold to Cambridge
Analytica, who used it to create highly-targeted ads to encourage
users to vote for Trump and Brexit.
The furore surrounding this scandal was so serious that Mark
Zuckerberg was called to answer questions in front of Congress in
the US.
Source: Fotis Law Firm (2023) “Case study: Facebook-Cambridge
Analytica data breach scandal”, https://fotislaw.com/lawtify/case-studyon-facebooks-data-breach [accessed on 17/01/2023].