Las Vegas Review-Journal

Facebook hit with privacy suit by D.C.

- By Michael Balsamo and Michael Liedtke The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The District of Columbia has fired the latest legal salvo against Facebook with a lawsuit seeking to punish the social networking company for allowing data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica to improperly access data from as many as 87 million users.

The complaint filed Wednesday by Washington, D.C., Attorney General Karl Racine alleges that Facebook misled users about the security of their data and failed for years to properly monitor third-party apps.

“We’re seeking to hold Facebook accountabl­e for jeopardizi­ng and exposing the personal informatio­n of tens of millions of its users,” Racine said. “We hope this lawsuit will ensure Facebook takes better care with its data.”

Facebook said it’s reviewing the complaint and will continue to hold discussion­s with Racine and attorneys general scattered across the country who have raised red flags about the company’s mishandlin­g of personal informatio­n.

The lawsuit is the latest blow to Facebook in a year fraught with privacy scandals and other problems for the world’s biggest social network.

Facebook already has been buried in an avalanche of other lawsuits filed in federal and state courts, as well as regulatory investigat­ions in both the U.S. and Europe into whether the company has violated laws by repeatedly allowing unauthoriz­ed access to the personal informatio­n of the nearly 2.3 billion people on its private network.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States