Facebook Says “There’s No Expectation of Privacy” on Social Media
Facebook has been in the midst of controversy for quite a while now. The instance that brought the social media company into the public’s eye is most likely the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
During the scandal, Facebook allowed the data from as many as 87 million Facebook users to be harvested by Cambridge Analytica, a company tied to the Trump campaign.
Now, an investigation into Facebook’s role in privacy of users revealed interesting results.
Facebook has said that it didn’t violate users’ privacy rights because there’s “no expectation of privacy” when using social media.
Facebook counsel Orin Snyder said, “There is no invasion of privacy at all, because there is no privacy,” during a pretrial hearing to dismiss a lawsuit related to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, according to Law 360.
While Facebook didn’t deny that third-parties had access to million of users’ data, the company instead focused on the idea that there is no “reasonable expectation of privacy” on any social media site, including Facebook.
This comes as quite a turnaround to what Facebook has publicly been convincing users.
For example, recently Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO, said that she and CEO Mark Zuckerberg will do whatever it takes to keep people safe on Facebook. How they plan to do so without privacy is yet to be seen.
Recently, the public has been very vocal about breaking Zuckerberg’s near-absolute control over Facebook, as privacy and security issues have abounded.
This current case is presided over by U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria.
As of right now, Chhabria is going to let the lawsuit continue, noting in an order pre-hearing that the plaintiffs should expect the court to accept their argument that private information was disclosed without express consent.
The lawsuit outcome may be a turning point for the future of Facebook privacy.
