Ever since whistleblower, Christopher Wylie, went public on the operations of his former employer, Cambridge Analytica, revelations of unethical practices have been flooding in thick and fast.
In a Channel 4 documentary, aired last night, Cambridge Analytica was shown to boast about running fake news campaigns, entrapping candidates, and operating honey traps.
The information commissioner is now seeking an urgent warrant to access CA data. After the Channel 4 programme aired last night, it was revealed that the cybersecurity firm, Stroz Friedberg, was at CA offices and was subsequently ordered to leave by the information commissioner.
Facebook had hired Stroz Friedberg to carry out an audit of Cambridge Analytica.
In addition, Elizabeth Denham also asked Facebook to stop its CA audit because it could potentially prejudice the ICO investigation. An ICO spokesman revealed that Cambridge Analytica had not responded to an ICO demand for access to data. For that reason, the spokesman said: "The information commissioner is seeking a warrant to obtain information and access to systems and evidence related to her investigation."
According to the Guardian, Facebook agreed to halt its CA audit. Meanwhile, the Huffington Post reported that on Wednesday, 10 document-filled crates were carried out of the office building Cambridge Analytica is located in.
Two men reportedly loaded the crates into a delivery van and refused to comment when asked whether they worked for the company.
Facebook share price drops as data breaches hit the headlines
Facebook's response has been somewhat muted. As a result, current revelations triggered the biggest drop in share price in four years in the last few days.
According to CBS News contributor, Nicolas Thompson, Facebook became aware of the data breaches in 2015 but failed to ensure that all the data would be deleted.
Up until now, Mark Zuckerberg has not commented publicly on the controversy. However, according to CNBC, MP, Damian Collins, sent a letter to him this morning, asking him to appear and face questions from the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee.
In the same letter, Collins asked Zuckerberg to respond by 26 March. However, Zuckerberg is under no obligation to appear before UK lawmakers.
Zuckerberg said 2018 was the year to fix Facebook issues
On the back of these serious events, observers now wonder if Mark Zuckerberg will hold true to his promise to fix Facebook issues this year. Data breaches are a matter of public interest, affecting just about anyone using social media. Though Facebook denies data breaches and says it shut down the app in question in 2015 because user information was passed onto Cambridge Analytica, questions remain as to whether all relevant data was, indeed, deleted.
