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Oz Privacy Commissioner Opens Facebook Investigation

The Australian Information Commissioner and Privacy Commissioner will be launching an investigation into Facebook after it was revealed the data of more than 300,000 Australians users may have been used improperly.

In a statement, Angelene Falk, acting privacy commissioner says the investigation will consider whether Facebook has breached the Privacy Act 1988(Privacy Act).

She continues, “Given the global nature of this matter, the OAIC will confer with regulatory authorities internationally.

“All organisations that are covered by the Privacy Act have obligations in relation to the personal information that they hold. This includes taking reasonable steps to ensure that personal information is held securely, and ensuring that customers are adequately notified about the collection and handling of their personal information.”

If the privacy commissioner finds Facebook guilty it could be facing multi-million dollar fines.

Falk sends a reminder to companies with access to personal data, “Organisations should regularly and proactively assess their information-handling practices to ensure that they are both compliant with privacy laws and in keeping with community expectations.”

During a press conference earlier this week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted the number of people affected by the data breach is closer to 87 million with 311,129 of those being Australians.

Facebook has now come out and said that it is possible all of its 2 billion users could have had their data improperly used.

Last month it was revealed controversial political research group Cambridge Analytica had access to 50 million user’s data without permission.



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