Suit alleges Facebook misled users about data security

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

The District of Columbia has fired the latest legal salvo against Facebook with a lawsuit seeking to punish the social networking company for allowing data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica to improperly access data from as many as 87 million users .

The complaint filed Wednesday by Washington, D.C., Attorney General Karl Racine alleges that Facebook misled users about the security of their data and failed for years to properly monitor third-party apps.

“We’re seeking to hold Facebook accountable for jeopardizing and exposing the personal information of tens of millions of its users,” Racine said. “We hope this lawsuit will ensure Facebook takes better care with its data.”

Facebook said it’s reviewing the complaint and will continue to hold discussions with Racine and attorneys general scattered across the country who have raised red flags about the company’s mishandling of personal information.

The lawsuit is the latest blow to Facebook in a year fraught with privacy scandals and other problems for the world’s biggest social network.

Facebook already has been buried in an avalanche of other lawsuits filed in federal and state courts, as well as regulatory investigations in both U.S. and Europe into whether the company has violated laws by repeatedly allowing unauthorized access to the personal information of the nearly 2.3 billion people on its private network.