Mar 26, 2018

Illinois' Cook County sues Facebook and Cambridge Analytica

Kim Hart, author of Cities

Photo: Dominic Lipinski/PA Images via Getty Images

Cook County of Illinois is suing Facebook and Cambridge Analytica for running afoul of a state fraud law. The lawsuit alleges that Cambridge Analytica deceived millions of Illinois Facebook users whose information was collected inappropriately, and that Facebook did not protect users' privacy.

  • "Facebook is not a social media company; it is the largest data mining operation in existence,” the complaint says. "Facebook...continues to conduct a wide array of human subject research experiments."

Why it matters: This is the first instance of a lawsuit brought by a government at the local and state level over the data collection scandal. The Federal Trade Commission also confirmed Monday that it is investigating Facebook's data protection practices. Cook County is seeking civil penalties and fines up to $50,000 per violation — aka per Facebook user in the county.

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