Australia's Privacy Watchdog Sues Facebook Over Cambridge Analytica

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Facebook is, once again, in the firing line over the Cambridge Analytica debacle, with Australia's information commissioner suing Facebook claining 300,000 Australians were unknowingly affected by the privacy breach.

The OAIC says in its court filing that the design of Facebook made it so that users were unable to consent or control over how their data was disclosed, and to date, Facebook has not been able to tell the OAIC which Australian users were affected.

[theguardian.com...]

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At the time, Facebook said 311,127 Australians between March 2014 and May 2015 had data shared with the app, accounting for 0.4% of users affected by the breach.

However, the court documents reveal just 53 people in Australia installed the app.

With so many people affected while only a few dozen of them had the app installed, it is a clear indication that the security settings of Facebook allowed much broader access to data than just the private information of those who had the app installed. It is unclear for me though, which information the Cambridge Analytica app as able to access from third parties. Was it just the name of these people through the friends' list, or more personal or even private info which wasn't available for the general public.