Facebook was accused of inappropriately sharing information of 87 million users globally. (File)
The Australian privacy regulator filed a lawsuit against Facebook Inc accusing the social media giant of sharing the personal details of more than 300,000 people to political consultant Cambridge Analytica without their knowledge.
In the Federal Court lawsuit, the Australian Information Commissioner accused Facebook of breaching privacy law by disclosing 311,127 users' information for political profiling via a survey product, 'This Is Your Digital Life', on its website. "The design of the Facebook platform meant that users were unable to exercise reasonable choice and control about how their personal information was disclosed," Information Commissioner Angelene Falk said in a statement.
The suit sought unspecified damages, adding that each breach of privacy law could draw a maximum penalty of A$1.7 million ($1.1 million)
The fine would amount to A$529 billion if the court awarded the maximum for each of the 311,127 instances.A representative for Facebook in Australia was not immediately available for comment. Last July, Facebook was fined a record $5 billion by the U.S
Federal Trade Commission after a probe triggered by the same user personality quiz from 2014 to 2015.
All up, Facebook was accused of inappropriately sharing information belonging to 87 million users globally with the survey tool of now-defunct British firm Cambridge Analytica.