Facebook treated voters with ‘disrespect’ over data collection
Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham and her deputy gave evidence to MPs about the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Facebook and others involved in the Cambridge Analytica scandal showed a disturbing level of disrespect for the personal data of voters, the Information Commissioner has said.
The amount of data held by companies such as Facebook, Cambridge Analytica, data brokers and political parties has astounded many people.
It has been stated that it is “critical” that particular people have direct access to executives based in the social media’s new Mountain View offices.
It would be very useful for Mr Zuckerberg to talk directly to MPs.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) investigation into how the data of millions of Facebook users was harvested by an academic and shared with Cambridge Analytica was, she told MPs, “unprecedented”, in terms of scale, cost and complexity.
In October, the ICO fined Facebook the maximum of £500,000, over its involvement in the controversy.
It is clear that there is a fundamental tension between its business model and the protection of the privacy of users’ data. A new regulatory model is needed to deal with online misinformation and harmful and offensive user-generated content – one that was tougher on tech firms.
The time for self-regulation is over. That ship has sailed.
Parliament need to set the objectives, with a code of practice being drawn up by a hybrid regulator, combining the skills of Ofcom and the ICO. No country has tried this yet. It’s quite controversial and the need to balance freedom of expression with the harms of the internet is hard.
There needs to be an ethical pause to consider how political marketing should be conducted online in future.
We have to ask whether the same model that sells us holidays, shoes and cars should be used to engage with voters.
On Facebook, the platform needs to change and take much greater responsibility, and call for Facebook to be subject to stricter regulation and oversight.