Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg testifying to Congress on April 10 after companies like Cambridge Analytica abused the platform to collect data on millions of users.
Acting Information and Privacy Commissioner Rachel Falk has told Senate Estimates that her office's investigation into Facebook regarding the Cambridge Analytica data misuse scandal will take at least six to eight months to reach an outcome.
Facing the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee on Thursday night, the acting head of the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) said a standard investigation into a potential breach or alleged misuse of data takes around that long; however, given the "complexities" the Facebook investigation contains, it is expected to take longer.
Before his departure, former Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim opened preliminary enquiries[1] to determine whether the personal information of Australians was affected. Once it was confirmed that the personal information was in fact impacted, Falk then opened a commissioner-initiated inquiry[2], given the size of the alleged breach and the "issues at hand".
"Having now opened a commissioner-instigated investigation, there's a number of outcomes that could occur: If I or the commissioner were to make a finding that there was no breach of privacy in the circumstances, then the matter would close; if the commissioner were to find that there had been a breach of privacy, then there needs to be a decision taken as to what the appropriate regulatory outcome might be," she explained.
While over 300,000 users who had their information misused hailed from Australia, the country was the 10th hardest hit by the scandal globally. Overall, information on up to 87 million users, mostly from the US, was admitted by Facebook[3] as being "improperly shared" with Cambridge Analytica.
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