Following Israel, US opens probe into Facebook privacy breach

Days after similar steps were announcement by Israeli authorities, the US Federal Trade Commission says it has opened an investigation into Facebook’s privacy practices and the harvesting of its data on tens of millions of Facebook users by the British consulting group Cambridge Analytica.

The FTC confirms media reports that is is conducting a “non-public investigation” into Facebook over whether it mishandled private data or violated a 2011 agreement which settled an earlier probe.

Israel’s Justice Ministry informed Facebook last week that it is carrying out an “administrative investigation” into possible “violations of Israelis’ personal information.”

Cambridge Analytica been under fire since The New York Times and The Guardian newspaper reported that it used data inappropriately obtained from roughly 50 million Facebook users to try to influence elections, including the 2016 US presidential election.

Cambridge Analytica’s chief executive Alexander Nix has admitted to using Israeli private companies’ “intelligence gathering” methods to get information about voters.