Demand Progress

A whistleblower just revealed that right-leaning tech firm, Cambridge Analytica, secretly took personal information from more than 50 million Facebook users without their permission, then used it to help Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.¹

Cambridge Analytica’s CEO claimed this data was the “secret sauce” that helped Trump win.²

Not only did Facebook let this happen, they have yet to notify these 50 million Facebook users whose personal information was taken by Trump’s consultants. That’s right, your personal data could be affected, and we will have no idea unless we can push Facebook to come clean.

Sign and share the petition: Facebook must immediately notify the 50 million Facebook users whose personal information was secretly collected by Trump’s data firm Cambridge Analytica.

Cambridge Analytica secretly took this data by exploiting a data policy Facebook had for years. Facebook let the the owners of third-party apps grab personal data about not just people who used their app – but everyone on their Facebook friend list, too.

That’s how a quiz app used by just 270,000 people allowed Cambridge Analytica to secretly take personal information from 50 million Facebook accounts and use it to build “psychographic profiles” of those people. Which might be a violation of Facebook’s commitments to the FTC, potentially leaving them on the hook for billions of dollars in fines.³

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg need to make this right. It’s time they come clean and notify all 50 million people whose personal information was secretly taken by Trump’s digital firm Cambridge Analytica. Click here to sign and share the petition.

Facebook has resisted coming clean about shady 2016 election maneuvers on its platform. The social media giant only recently released information about Russian troll farms’ reported involvement sowing misinformation⁴ and divisiveness with posts and paid ads.⁵

And while it’s not exactly clear how effective Cambridge Analytica's pro-Trump campaigning was in 2016, we already know Cambridge Analytica has used dirty tricks in the past to play mind-games to disrupt elections – including secretly offering to entrap politicians with bribes and “Ukrainian girl” prostitutes.⁶

Either way, Facebook’s status as a near monopoly power of internet advertising has already drawn critics from Silicon Valley and in Congress – where members of Congress are now discussing whether to bring CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg to testify under oath.⁷

Even as Mark Zuckerberg broke his silence and addressed simple fixes Facebook will take to prevent future 3rd party data sharing problems, he still hasn't committed to clearly and immediately notifying all of the 50 million people whose personal information was secretly collected. This is the largest personal information breach of Facebook's history, and Mark Zuckerberg knew about what Cambridge Analytica was doing for years. He's only now taking action and so far, his actions aren't enough. It’s time we hold him and Facebook accountable.

There’s a lot more we need to find out, but one thing is clear: Facebook wasn’t very “friendly” during the 2016 election.

Sign the petition to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg: Notify the 50 million Facebook users whose personal data was secretly taken by the Trump campaign’s data consultants Cambridge Analytica and used to help Trump get elected.

Sources:
1. New York Times, “How Trump Consultants Exploited the Facebook Data of Millions,” March 17, 2018.
2. Slate, “The Cambridge Analytica Scandal Is What Facebook-Powered Election Cheating Looks Like,” March 17, 2018.
3. Washington Post, “FTC opens investigation into Facebook after Cambridge Analytica scrapes millions of users’ personal information,” March 20, 2018.
4. Techcrunch, “Check now to see if you liked any Russian troll accounts on Facebook,” December 22, 2017.
5. Wired, “What We Know — And Don't Know — About Facebook, Trump, And Russia,” September 26, 2017.
6. The Guardian, “Cambridge Analytica boasts of dirty tricks to swing elections,” March 19, 2018.
7. Washington Post, “FTC opens investigation into Facebook after Cambridge Analytica scrapes millions of users’ personal information,” March 20, 2018.