The watchdog filed a notice of application on Thursday, which also asks the bench to order the company to change the way it informs users about and gets their consent for data-sharing with app developers, advertisers and other third parties. In a statement, Facebook spokesperson Erin Taylor said the firm had attempted to cooperate with the regulator and offered “measures that would go above and beyond what other companies do.” (The Logic)
Talking point: Thursday’s move is the latest step in the privacy commissioner’s almost two-year-long process of investigating Cambridge Analytica’s acquisition of Facebook user data through a third-party app. The watchdog threatened legal action in April 2019, because it said Facebook would not accept its findings or implement its recommendations. The federal court can impose binding orders on the firm, but the privacy commissioner can’t just submit the results of its investigation to get a judgment—it will have to restate its case that the firm violated privacy laws. Taylor said there’s “no evidence that Canadian user data was shared with Cambridge Analytica.” But in April 2018, Facebook said 622,161 Canadians may have been affected.