Facebook faces second UK class action for data harvesting scandal

Facebook is facing a second class suit in the London High Court over allegations it failed to protect the personal details of about one million English and Welsh users in the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

The lawsuit filed by Journalist and writer Peter Jukes for unspecified but “substantial” damages is the second to allege Facebook allowed third-party apps to harvest the data of friends without their permission or knowledge.

The latest UK claim is being brought on behalf of adult Facebook users who were “friends” with an app user before May 2015.

A similar claim was filed last October by the group Facebook You Owe Us, with law firm Milberg London representing them.

Because of the similarities between the two cases, the London High Court may merge the two or hear them simultaneously.

The social media giant was fined $687,000 by the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in 2018 for its role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

It was alleged that a third-party app “This Is Your Digital Life” gathered Facebook users’ data without consent between 2013 and 2015.

According to a Facebook spokesperson, the ICO's investigation into these issues found no evidence that any UK or EU users’ data was transferred by “This Is Your Digital Life” app developer, Dr. Aleksandr Kogan, to Cambridge Analytica.

Cambridge Analytica has denied that it made use of such data for the 2016 US election campaign.