Facebook Sues Korean Firm over Alleged Data Breach

Facebook has commenced action against a South Korean firm, Rankwave, which it says sold its data unlawfully for marketing and advertising purposes.

In court documents filed in California on Friday, the social network says Rankwave used at least 30 different apps, since 2014, to track and analyse comments and likes on Facebook pages, and requests an audit by a judge to investigate the alleged sale. Facebook says it cannot at present say how much data or how many users may be affected, but believes the action will 'send a message to developers that Facebook is serious about enforcing our policies', according to a report on the BBC.
Facebook's director of platform enforcement Jessica Romero said Rankwave 'failed to co-operate with our efforts to verify their compliance with our policies, which we require of all developers using our platform'. The company seeks unspecified damages.

Last year, the UK-based targeting firm Cambridge Analytica was accused of illegally collecting Facebook profiles which could be matched to electoral rolls. The problems centred around data provided by users of a personality quiz app, created by Aleksandr Kogan and his firm Global Science Research (GSR), through which the Facebook data of up to 87 million people was harvested without their knowledge. In October, Facebook received a fine of £500k from the UK's ICO in regard to the matter - the maximum amount for a penalty under pre-GDPR legislation.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.