UK lawmakers seize secret Facebook docs from racy app maker suing Zuckerberg
Unable to get answers about Cambridge Analytica scandal from social media giant, MP orders documents from founder of Six4Three, which used data breach to trawl for bikini pics
Britain’s Parliament took a rare move to seize documents from a company involved in a lawsuit with Facebook that it believes may shed light on the social media giant’s sharing of user data with polling research firm Cambridge Analytica, according to a report Saturday.
Facebook has refused to answer questions from British lawmakers, who are seeking to hold the company to account and uncover how it dealt with privacy controls and allowed Cambridge Analytica to harvest user data used by US President Donald Trump’s campaign.
According to a report in the Guardian, MP Damian Collins took the extraordinary step of ordering the cache of files from the US-based founder of the now-defunct Six4Three, whose Pikini app charged users to trawl through Facebook for photos of women in bikinis and allow them to zoom in on them.
The app developer, who was not named in the report, was visiting London when the request was made. When he refused to comply, an officer from Parliament was sent to his hotel room and he was then escorted to Parliament and threatened with fines and possible imprisonment.
Collins, who heads a parliamentary culture committee, admitted to the Guardian that the move was extreme.
“This is an unprecedented move but it’s an unprecedented situation. We’ve failed to get answers from Facebook and we believe the documents contain information of very high public interest,” he said.
According to the British news outlet, the files contain emails between senior executives, including Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg that include revelations dealing with how the social media company dealt with data and user privacy.
The documents were obtained by Six4Three during a discovery phase of their lawsuit against Facebook in California court. Six4Three has accused Facebook of hurting its business model by deciding to close off access to user data, the same access exploited by Cambridge Analytica to gather information about people’s political preferences. The app developer has also leveled claims that Facebook collects information by listening in on phone calls, reading text messages and other methods.
Though the internal Facebook documents were sealed by the San Mateo, California, court, the Six4Three founder had no choice but to share them with Parliament, though it places him at risk of being found in contempt of court.
A Facebook spokesperson told the Guardian that Six4Three’s “claims have no merit, and we will continue to defend ourselves vigorously.”
Last month British regulators said that between 2007 and 2014, Facebook processed the personal information of users unfairly by giving app developers access to their information without informed consent. The failings meant the data of some 87 million people was used without their knowledge.
“Facebook failed to sufficiently protect the privacy of its users before, during and after the unlawful processing of this data,” said Elizabeth Denham, the head of the Information Commissioner Office. “A company of its size and expertise should have known better and it should have done better.”
The regulator said a subset of the data was later shared with other organizations, including SCL Group, the parent company of political consultancy Cambridge Analytica. News that the consultancy had used data from millions Facebook accounts to profile voters and help Trump’s 2016 election campaign ignited a global scandal on data rights.
Collins has been seeking to compel Zuckerberg to testify before Parliament since May, to little avail.
In appearances before US Congress and the EU parliament he has apologized for the data breach and promised reforms.
AP contributed to this report.
