Israel To Investigate Facebook Amid Cambridge Analytica Data Privacy Scandal

March 25, 2018 | Israel announced this past week that it would launch an investigation into the activities of social media tech giant Facebook amid an unfolding scandal surrounding misuse of private data of some 50 million Facebook users by British data mining firm Cambridge Analytica. The Israeli Justice Ministry’s Privacy Protection Authority said it has “opened an investigation into its activities, following the publications on the transfers of personal data from Facebook to Cambridge Analytica, and the possibility of other infringements of the privacy law regarding Israelis.” Cambridge Analytica is accused of using the mined data to influence political opinion and decision-making, namely with Brexit and in the lead-up to the election of US President Donald Trump. “According to the Israeli Privacy Law, personal data may only be used to the purpose for which it was given, with the consent of the individual,” said the Israeli Privacy Protection Authority, adding that it will “investigate whether personal data of Israeli citizens was illegally used in a way that infringes upon their right to privacy and the provisions of the Israeli Privacy Law.” Cambridge Analytica used Israeli companies and former Israeli spies in some of its intelligence gathering, as revealed by Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix in a secretly recorded conversation by Britain’s Channel 4 news. And Israeli hackers reportedly offered Cambridge Analytica hacked emails of politicians in Nigeria and the Caribbean island of St Kitts and Nevis who are now heads of state.