Cook County State Attorney Kimberly Foxx announced today that her office has filed a consumer lawsuit against Facebook and Cambridge Analytica for the improper gathering of more than 50 million Facebook users’ data that could have been used to influence the 2016 presidential election, which allegedly violated an Illinois fraud law.
Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm based in London hired by President Donald Trump’s campaign, caught fire last week after a report from The New York Times revealed it had misused personal user data it collected from Facebook.
The suit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, alleges that the gathered data was used to create psychographic profiles on Americans to influence their voting decisions. Additionally, the suit argues that Facebook deceived its users by telling the public that strict limitations and protocols on data gathering were in place, and violated users’ trust by not informing them of Cambridge’s actions once it knew.
“Cambridge Analytica deliberately misled Facebook users so it could build psychological profiles of the user and their friends, and Facebook did not stop it,” Foxx said in a statement. “This blatant deception violated Illinois law and more importantly violated the privacy of Illinois residents. Cambridge Analytica and Facebook must be held accountable for their actions.”
The news of Cook County's suit comes at the same time that the Federal Trade Commission announced it is investigating Facebook’s privacy practices. The government organization says it is trying to determine whether Facebook violated a consent decree it signed in 2011 that was meant to protect users’ privacy.
On Sunday, Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg took out full-page ads in a variety of British and American newspapers to apologize for the Cambridge scandal.
"This was a breach of trust, and I'm sorry we didn't do more at the time,” the ads read, in part. “We're now taking steps to ensure this doesn't happen again.”
Cook Country isn’t alone in taking steps to sue the tech giant and consulting firm. At least five suits have been filed in federal court against Facebook and Cambridge Analytica in Northern California, according to the Chicago Tribune.
