Indonesia is the latest country to begin a probe on Facebook. The country’s communication ministry said it’s coordinating with the Police to inquire from Facebook if any personal information was shared with Cambridge Analytica.
The number of users whose personal information had been inappropriately shared had surged this week to 87million, and although, Mr. Zuckerberg said that a majority of them are in the United States, there have been reports that data from users in other countries are inclusive, with Indonesia been over a million. The communications minister sent a text to Reuters this morning; it read:
“There is an indication that Indonesian Facebook users are part of Cambridge Analytica’s data case. We are requesting an exact figure.”
The breaches of the privacy law in Indonesia include criminal sanctions with a penalty of up 12 years in jail or a fine of $870,000.
The Minister said the country had been previously reassured by Facebook that its policies complied with the Indonesian law on electronic information and transactions, as well as the law protecting its citizens from a data breach.
There are currently no shreds of evidence to prove that Facebook has committed a data breach. It’s all based on speculations. With fragments of truth stemming daily, one can’t be too sure what next is hidden. This week, the media has also learnt that Kenya and Nigeria had a tie with Cambridge Analytica in previous elections. It’s a worst case scenario because there are no data laws to protect the privacy of internet users in many parts of Africa, leaving the user exposed to a data breach.
In response to Indonesia’s inquiry, Facebook said in an emailed statement:
“We are strongly committed to protecting people’s information, and we intend to make all the same privacy controls and settings available everywhere. We have taken significant steps to make our privacy tools easier to find, restrict data access on Facebook, and make our Terms and Data Policy clearer.”
Facebook also promised to comply with Indonesia’s authority and continually work with the privacy and information commissioners to carefully monitor to be sure that its company is acting in good faith.
Last year, Indonesia threatened to block WhatsApp Messenger with the condition that obscene GIFs provided by third-party developers were removed. The country currently ranked fourth globally after the US, India, and Brazil in 2014 according to the data statistics presented by the social media giant.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
