On the heels of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Missouri’s attorney general announced Monday that his office has launched an investigation into Facebook’s data privacy practices.
Josh Hawley (R) was one of a bipartisan group of 37 attorneys general who sent a letter to Facebook pressing for answers about how Cambridge Analytica obtained data on 50 million of its users. “These revelations raise many serious questions concerning Facebook’s policies and practices, and the processes in place to ensure they are followed,” the attorneys general wrote. “Facebook has made promises about users’ privacy in the past, and we need to know that users can trust Facebook. With the information we have now, our trust has been broken.”
The Federal Trade Commission’s consumer protection division already opened an investigation into Facebook’s data-sharing policies. In a press conference Monday, Hawley said his office sent a list of 60 questions to the social media company to determine, among other things, how much money campaigns paid for users’ data and whether users were adequately notified.
“I want to know, does Facebook truly disclose to its users the kind of data that it collects?” Hawley said Monday, according to the Hill. “Does it disclose how it uses this information? Does it disclose how it shares this information?”
Hawley, who is running for the Republican nomination for a United States Senate seat, is also seeking communications and documents related to President Barack Obama‘s 2012 campaign. Facebook has until May 29th to respond.
