The social network’s latest controversy looks likely to become a huge legal headache

Facebook suspended Cambridge Analytica (CA) from its network Friday for failing to delete data about 270K people, acquired from an academic study.

The New York Times and the Observer reported that CA actually had data on over 50M people, as social ties of the 270K were tapped without permission.

(Commercial enterprises can use Facebook Custom Audiences and Lookalike Audiences to access Facebook friends of their data lists in a similar way.)

Facebook says it wasn’t a data breach as people knowingly provided the info.

Lawmakers in the US and UK want investigations. The Washington Post says Facebook may’ve breached FTC privacy rules by letting the data escape.

Here are the top three articles on the subject:

1. How Trump consultants exploited the Facebook data of millions(NYT).
2. The inside account of what was going inside Cambridge Analytica, from 28-year-old Christopher Wylie (Guardian).
3. Facebook actually employs a psychologist whose firm sold data to Cambridge Analytics (Guardian).

So far Facebook have responded like this:

• Its statement Friday is undermined by claims it knew about the issue for two years and threatened to sue to stop The Guardian’s story from being published.
• Whistleblower Wylie says that Facebook “privately welcomed” his help and then publicly suspended his account, according to his attorney.
• As for the issues with the product itself, this is a pretty damning thread from TechCrunch’s John Constine. It’s worth a read, offering up a “whole list of times Facebook left the door open to exploitation and abuse.”
• CNBC highlights the silence from founder Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg on the topic.

Britain’s Channel 4 is planning to air footage obtained when its reporters went undercover to speak with Cambridge Analytica founder Alexander Nix and others at the company. The Financial Times reported the data company was trying to stop the broadcast

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