Stockholm (NordSIP) – The ongoing revelations about Facebook’s abuse of user data and release of data of 50 million users to Cambridge Analytica, an analytics firm that helped to elect Donald Trump in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, has caused Nordea AB’s sustainable investment unit to temporarily blacklist the social media company.
“Given the high-level revelations and the turmoil surrounding the company with a strong public backlash, coupled with the overhanging threat of increasing regulation of the platforms and the EU GDPR [General Data Protection Regulation] on the horizon, we choose to quarantine Facebook,” Sasja Beslik, chief of Nordea’s sustainable investment unit, wrote yesterday (March 20) on Twitter.
The scandal sent Facebook’s stock into a 9 per cent dive and wiped about $60 billion off its share value the past days.
Beslik told Bloomberg he needs to see “ a series of examples of how they are managing systemic risks related to data privacy in the operations” in order for Nordea to lift its Facebook quarantine.
“That’s what needs to be shown to the market, and they also need to convince the market this is the risk that they’re actually managing in the operation. Because this is not the only thing… [There is] a whole range of systemic issues related to this. It’s time for them to step up.”
“This happened in 2016. How come we haven’t heard about this until now? There are many questions when these things happen. Is it only related to the U.S.? Have they been using the data for other elections? For other purposes? There are so many questions that pop up after this and so few answers.”
Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg so far denies any wrongdoing, and is expected to make a statement Friday.
He has been invited to testify to the UK and European Parliaments, among others.
Update:
In a public statement posted on Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg conceded Wednesday that the personal data of 50 million Americans had been harvested and shared improperly with Cambridge Analytics. The breach of confidentiality amounts to a “breach of trust between Facebook and the people who share their data with us and expect us to protect it,” Zuckerberg wrote. “We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can’t then we don’t deserve to serve you. We also made mistakes, there’s more to do, and we need to step up and do it,” he added.
Facebook pledged to investigate and audit apps that accessed large amounts of data from users prior to changes in its platform in 2014, and said that it will inform users if their personally identifiable information was misused by app developers.Facebook also promised to further restrict the amount of data third-party developers can access when users login to their sites with their Facebook profile, turn off data sharing for apps that haven’t been used for three months, and move the tool that allows users to restrict the data they share from the Settings menu to the News Feed.
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