A London-based firm that specializes in data analytics, Cambridge Analytics was recently accused of having misused Facebook’s large basin of meta-data concerning hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of American voters without their permission to target through personalized political ads during the course of the US elections. This has prompted European Parliament President Antonio Tajani to invite the social media titan’s CEO to the heart of European legislature.
“I am deeply concerned by allegations that Cambridge Analytics harvested information from Facebook accounts without user consent, exposing key ethical issues surrounding the accountability and responsibility of powerful digital platforms,” said Tajani and continued, “This incident is more than a breach of data; it’s a breach of trust that threaten the very functioning of democracy.” The Parliament President also remarked, “I have invited Mark Zuckerberg to the European Parliament to provide explanations, as we have a duty to safeguard citizens’ rights and ensure that they are informed, especially with regards to sensitive issues like data protection.”
On 12 April 2018, President Tajani and the MEPs of Europe will decide what course of action the European central legislature will undertake. One option is to invite Zuckerberg and other representatives of online companies to take part in a plenary session in which they would be enquired by European legislators. MEPs could then pass whatever resolution is necessary to call on the Commission to institutionalize measures to tackle the misuse. Parliament is also considering setting up a temporary committee to look into the allegations and possible measures. In fact, the Parliament has always insisted on the need to reconcile security with the need to safeguard privacy and personal data. It has adopted resolutions addressing the use of passenger name record (PNR) data for the prevention and prosecution of terrorist offenses and serious crime, data mining and the need to protect information in a digitalized world.
MEPs have concerns about how Facebook might have been misused. (Photo: Gerait on Pixabay)
MEPs have paid special attention to EU-US data transfer rules, calling in 2014 for the suspension of the Safe Harbor privacy principles, and in 2017, raising concerns about surveillance activities by US electronic communications service providers, calling on the Commission to conduct a proper assessment of the EU-US Privacy Shield for data transferred for commercial purposes. The revelations about the misuse of Facebook’s data emerged as the EU prepares for the entry into force of the General Data Protection Regulation in May. It sets new rules for companies operating in the EU and gives people more control over their private information. The legislation includes the right to know when personal data has been hacked and the right to object to profiling.
The Parliament also wants to step up protection for people using electronic communications by reforming the e-Privacy directive (2002). The proposal seeks to ensure high standards of privacy, confidentiality and security in electronic communications. In October of last year, the European Parliament went through similar struggles to push for stronger privacy restrictions for online communications. Back then, too, MEPs wanted to step up protection for citizens using tools like Messenger, WhatsApp and Skype. MEPs suggest setting stricter limits on data processing, ensuring that data can only be used for the purpose for which the user has given consent and guaranteeing that meta-data—information about numbers called, websites visited, and geographical location—is treated as confidential and cannot be passed on to third parties.
There were draft proposals to ensure high standards of privacy, confidentiality and security in electronic communications across the EU were approved by the Civil Liberties Committee on Thursday. These would apply to SMS and telephone services and would update the EU’s existing e-privacy rules to cover recently introduced internet-enabled services such as the social media platforms mentioned above. This draft which was put forward last year constituted the Parliament’s draft negotiating mandate for talks with the Council on the revision of the e-privacy rules. It was passed in a 31-24 vote, with only one abstention.
By MSEAP Cyber Secretariat (mseap@assembly.go.kr) |
