The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled in favor of Facebook on Tuesday, dismissing

Key Highlights :

1. Facebook was found to have violated Canada's privacy law by failing to obtain valid and meaningful consent from users before disclosing their information to the "This is Your Digital Life" app.

2. Facebook argued that its network-wide policies, user controls and educational resources amounted to reasonable efforts under PIPEDA.

3. The court was left to "speculate and draw unsupported inferences from pictures of Facebook's various policies and resources as to what a user would or would not read; what they may find discouraging; and what they would or would not understand." As a result, the commissioner failed to meet the burden of establishing that Facebook breached the law concerning meaningful consent.

     A judge has dismissed the federal privacy watchdog's bid for a declaration that Facebook broke the law governing the use of personal information in a case flowing from the Cambridge Analytica affair.

     The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had filed a complaint in March 2018, alleging that Facebook had violated a 2011 consent order that required the social media platform to protect user data.

     According to the FTC, Facebook had failed to take adequate steps to protect the data of users who had shared their personal information with Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm that was involved in the 2016 US presidential election.

     The FTC alleged that Facebook had allowed Cambridge Analytica to improperly access the data of more than 50 million people.

     The company has since admitted that it had mishandled the data of millions of users.

     In its complaint, the FTC argued that Facebook had violated Section 5 of the FTC Act, which prohibits companies from deceiving consumers about the privacy of their personal information.

     The FTC also argued that Facebook had violated a 2011 consent order that required the social media platform to protect user data.

     In its response, Facebook argued that the consent order did not apply to the company because it had changed its privacy policy in 2014.

     Facebook also argued that the company had taken adequate steps to protect the data of users who had shared their personal information with Cambridge Analytica.

     The company said that it had suspended Cambridge Analytica and had launched an investigation into the matter.

     The judge in the case ruled that the FTC had not provided enough evidence to support its claims that Facebook had violated the consent order.

     The judge also ruled that the FTC had not provided enough evidence to support its claims that Facebook had deceived consumers about the privacy of their personal information.

     The judge said that the FTC had not provided enough evidence to show that Facebook had violated Section 5 of the FTC Act.

     The judge said that the FTC had not provided enough evidence to show that Facebook had violated the consent order.

Continue Reading at Source : ctvnews