Facebook and Cambridge Analytica: Just Another Data Breach
There has been much in the news lately about Cambridge Analytica utilizing data from Facebook without consumer authorization. Despite the political upheaval around this, and the consequences it may or may not have had on the election in 2016, this is nothing more than a simple data breach case. Data breach occurs when users provide data to a company and believe it is going to be kept safe and that company, without its knowledge or agreement allows that data to be accessed by others. That’s exactly what happened here. Facebook claims to have not turned the data over to Cambridge Analytics, but yet Cambridge Analytics was able to access it. This is nothing more than a classic data breach case.
In 2017 Paulson & Nace, along with two other law firms, was successful in securing a favorable opinion from the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia that held that individuals who are victims of a data breach can and should have their day in court. The argument revolved around the question of “standing.” Standing is the legal principle that a case or controversy must exist to bring a lawsuit. In other words, people cannot bring lawsuits in anticipation of being wronged. They must be a victim of some injury before bringing a suit.
In Attias v. CareFirst, Inc., 865 F.3d 620 (D.C. Cir. 2017) the D.C. Circuit Court held that victims of data breach do have standing to bring suit against those who they had entrusted with their data. Consequently, individuals who had their data stolen from CareFirst servers will now have an opportunity to present their case before a court of law.
The same should be true of those victims of the Facebook data breach. Your personal data is yours. It does not belong to corporate America to buy and sell or to exposure with impunity. If you believe that you are a victim of the Facebook data breach you may consider contacting an attorney to discuss your legal options.
Christopher T. Nace works in all practice areas of the firm, including medical malpractice, birth injury, drug and product liability, motor vehicle accidents, wrongful death, and other negligence and personal injury matters.
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