The popular social media website Facebook is under fire again, this time for allegedly allowing its users’ personal information to be misused, according to NPR.
The Federal Trade Commission opened an investigation against the company after the social network “admitted it suspended a firm that worked on behalf of the Trump campaign to use personal information gathered on Facebook to target potential Trump supporters.”
The information was allegedly gathered via an app asking users to take a personality test. The app then mined through their profiles and friend lists and gained access to information on more users regardless of if they took the quiz, according to NPR. That data was bought by Cambridge Analytica, a group accused of using the information to target users with “fake news” to influence the 2016 presidential election, The Atlantic reports.
Fines related to the exposure could cost Facebook about $40,000 per violation, with totals potentially running into the trillions, the BBC quoted FTC officials.
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