Facebook won’t compensate 2.7 million European users compromised by Cambridge Analytica in 2014, the company said as part of its follow-up on some of the questions directed at CEO Mark Zuckerberg by European Parliament members earlier this week. While acknowledging the incident was “a breach of trust,” the social media giant maintained “it’s important to remember that no bank account details, credit card information or national ID numbers were shared.” As no individual can feasibly claim they have incurred actual damages due to the ordeal, a compensation plan isn’t something that Facebook has in the works, as per its statement.
The firm also argued that Aleksandr Kogan, the app developer contracted with harvesting user data via a personality quiz app, was only paid by Cambridge Analytica to provide it with data on users in the United States and hasn’t shared any information on European Union citizens, according to Mr. Kogan’s testimony and Facebook’s own investigation that yielded no evidence any individual on the Old Continent had their data sold to the now-dissolved political consulting firm despite being compromised by the app itself. Facebook plans to confirm that its European users were largely unaffected by the Cambridge Analytica debacle through a forensic audit of the data harvester’s servers meant to be conducted following authorization from the Information Commissioner for the United Kingdom.
The Menlo Park, California-based social media giant reiterated its belief that another Cambridge Analytica scandal won’t happen in the future, citing its developer policy change from 2014. While similar privacy violations may have occurred before the company’s data-sharing policies were tightened four years back, no new ones should be possible and any potential transgressions that occurred in the past are presently being investigated, with those efforts already leading to the suspension of some 200 apps. All users whose privacy was compromised by third-party Facebook developers in any shape or form will be notified of the firm’s findings once they’re verified. The app Cambridge Analytica’s contractor used to harvest user data affected up to 87 million people, most of whom never accessed the quiz but were simply Facebook friends with people who did.