The Australian Information Commissioner has lodged proceedings against Facebook in the Federal Court, alleging the social media platform committed serious and/or repeated interferences with privacy in contravention of Australian law.
The Commissioner alleges that the personal information of Australian Facebook users was disclosed to the This is Your Digital Life app for a purpose other than the use for which the information was collected, in breach of the Privacy Act 1988.
Australian Information Commissioner and Privacy Commissioner, Angelene Falk said the information was exposed to the risk of being disclosed to British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica and used for political profiling purposes, and to other third parties.
“All entities operating in Australia must be transparent and accountable in the way they handle personal information, in accordance with their obligations under Australian privacy law,” Ms Falk said.
“We consider the design of the Facebook platform meant that users were unable to exercise reasonable choice and control about how their personal information was disclosed.”
She said Facebook’s default settings facilitated the disclosure of personal information, including sensitive information, at the expense of privacy.
“We claim these actions left the personal data of around 311,127 Australian Facebook users exposed to be sold and used for purposes including political profiling, well outside users’ expectations,” Ms Falk said.
