Facebook just made the stunning admission that 100 percent of its 2 billion users have likely had their personal data stolen by “malicious actors.”1
That’s right. One hundred percent. If you’re on Facebook, then it’s a virtual lock that your data has been stolen.
This is a massive privacy violation on a global scale, and it’s clear that Facebook simply can’t be trusted with the massive amount of data that they’ve allowed to be stolen and used to manipulate our behaviour, influence elections, and worse.
We’re calling on the government to make sure Canada's privacy laws protect us from modern-day digital threats so this kind of privacy violation can never happen again.
Will you make a donation to help demand action to prevent the next massive Facebook data scandal?
Facebook has been saying for years that there’s nothing to worry about, and even now we wouldn’t even know about these violations if not for whistleblowers and activists.
Canadian whistleblower Christopher Wylie revealed how Cambridge Analytica improperly harvested the data of millions of Facebook users to influence voters in the U.K. during the Brexit referendum and the election of U.S. President Donald Trump. Imagine what else has been done that we don’t know about?
The good news from all this is that the Canadian government may finally wake up and take action to put privacy protections in place to prevent this kind of massive data theft from happening again. Already, privacy watchdogs in B.C. and Ottawa are investigating whether current laws were broken by AggregateIQ in its efforts to sway the Brexit vote.2 And the Canadian government has FINALLY agreed to push forward mandatory data-breach disclosure rules that have been been delayed for nearly three years.3
But we won’t be safe until the laws covering our privacy rights are significantly strengthened. For example, under current law, our Privacy Commissioner has no power to force compliance with our laws or issue fines. So many companies simply flout the law, knowing that there will be no repercussions.
To harness the momentum from these scandals, we’re launching an emergency campaign to demand a commitment from our government to reform these toothless privacy laws.
Will you make a donation to help demand action to prevent the next massive Facebook data scandal?
Footnotes: 1 Facebook: ‘Malicious actors’ used its tools to discover identities and collect data on a massive global scale: The Washington Post
2 Privacy watchdog suggests he may join ongoing AggregateIQ investigations: CBC
3 Feds to enforce mandatory data breach disclosure rules on Nov. 1: iPolitics
