Seven Facebook users whose data was compromised by Cambridge Analytica have filed a class-action lawsuit against both entities on behalf of the 87 million Facebook users affected by the breach.
The lawsuit comes just hours before Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is slated to testify to Congress to address a growing number of related controversies that have engulfed the company.
Facebook came under fire last month when it was revealed that Cambridge Analytica, a consulting firm hired by the Trump campaign, was able to improperly obtain user data for targeting voters during the 2016 election. Aleksandr Kogan, a lecturer at Cambridge University, obtained the data through his personality-test app and then improperly shared it with the firm.
“Facebook has made billions of dollars selling advertisements targeted to its customers, and in this instance made millions selling advertisements to political campaigns that developed those very ads on the back of their customers’ own stolen personal information,” said Richard Fields, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, in a statement. “That’s unacceptable, and they must be held accountable.”
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Delaware, accuses Facebook of building the platform to make it easy for third parties to “steal users’ personal information.”
Zuckerberg, 33, will testify in two hearings to three congressional committees this week about what lawmakers see as Facebook’s tepid response to scores of Russian accounts trying to sway U.S. voters as well as severe privacy breaches on the platform.
“We didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake. It was my mistake, and I’m sorry,” his prepared remarks read.
Facebook has vowed to better protect user privacy and be more vigilant in shutting down fake accounts. The company offered a list of reforms, which include barring apps from accessing “personal information such as religious or political views, relationship status and details, custom friends lists, education and work history, fitness activity, book reading activity, music listening activity, news reading, video watch activity, and games activity.”
Zuckerberg has been called to apologized many times over the years for Facebook’s privacy issues, but it remains to be seen whether his contrition will fly this time with lawmakers.