Mark Zuckerberg has been summoned to testify in front of Parliament over data scandal

Facebook’s data harvesting scandal has continued to intensify, with several countries questioning the company’s use of data and the privacy failure which allowed firms like Cambridge Analytica to access the details of 50 million Facebook users without their consent.

Cambridge Analytica currently sits at the centre of this dispute, using this data to allegedly influence Donal Trump’s Presidential election in the US and the Brexit referendum in the UK. Right now the UK, EU and US have started investigations into the firm and Facebook’s involvement. 

Mark Zuckerberg, chairman, CEO and co-founder of Facebook, has been called to give evidence to a parliamentary committee of MPs. MPs have accused Facebook of misleading a previous committee which asked the company whether data had been taken without the consent of users. 

A whistleblower, Christopher Wylie, who previously worked for Cambridge Analytica, has stated that using data from a Facebook Quiz called “This is Your Digital Life” the data of 50 million Facebook users were harvested, with the bulk of the data coming from the US. This quiz didn’t only access the data of the 270,000 people who had taken the test but also stole the data of that user’s friends on the platform. 

Cambridge Analytica later purchased this data, allegedly using it to create a psychological profile for Facebook users. These profiles were then used to deliver pro-Trump material, which was designed to target specific groups of American people on Facebook.