Since returning from her Washington trip, the European Commissioner for Justice, Věra Jourova, has provided an update to the press about the recent disclosures involving the use of the personal data of millions of Facebook users by the Cambridge Analytic company and has expressed concerns in this regard. The Commissioner had to change her programme in order to meet representatives from the Federal Trade Commission in charge of data protection and send them a clear message: the EU expects an investigation into this case particularly because Facebook is part of the companies certified under the Privacy Shield agreement.
The chairperson of the article 29 working party, Andrea Jelinek, indicated in a press release on Wednesday that she fully supported the ongoing investigation by the British data protection authority and announced that the members of the G29 “Will work together in this process”. In the case of British law, the fine imposed on Facebook could be up to £50 million, explained Ms Jourova.
The latter considers that this case should not just be analysed within the perspective of possible breach of data protection but also in the context of risks affecting the freedom to make election choices by European citizens.
In a reference to the list of data to which Cambridge Analytica obtained access, which includes data ranging from political opinions and religious beliefs to data on personal satisfaction or beliefs in astrology, she said that, “I am not on Facebook but if I were, I would be very concerned about the subject”. Neither does she have any knowledge about the precedent that went “into the personal data on equally deep and intimate levels".
The Commissioner believes it would be useful to compare the way in which the two continents are going to tackle this, as well as the way in which citizens on both sides of the Atlantic respond.
On Thursday, Ms Jourova will send a letter to Facebook that is likely to raise several questions and point out that the EU expects the social networks to fully respect European regulation and that they demonstrate a certain “social responsibility".
The subject was also added at the last-minute to the agenda of the summit of heads and state and government in Brussels (see other article). (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)