US judge tells Facebook to submit Cambridge Analytica data records

Facebook shareholders in September 2018 sued the company to obtain information pertaining to the data leak of 87 million users.

A man poses with a magnifier in front of a Facebook logo on display in this illustration taken in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, December 16, 2015. (REUTERS)

A US judge has asked Facebook to hand over data privacy records related to the massive Cambridge Analytica scandal.

According to a report in Engadget on Friday, Facebook shareholders in September 2018 sued the social networking platform to obtain information pertaining to the data leak of 87 million users.

"Today, a US judge sided with shareholders, ordering Facebook to release the documents," said the report.

According to the judge in Delaware Chancery Court, the shareholders have a "credible basis" to suspect that Facebook board members may have committed wrongdoing. The shareholders had sued Facebook to obtain records related to the British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica and other privacy breaches.

The irony is that Facebook argues that privacy doesn't actually exist on Facebook.

At a separate hearing in a class-action lawsuit over the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook attorney Orin Snyder argued that there is "no expectation of privacy" on the platform.

"There is no invasion of privacy at all, because there is no privacy," Snyder told the US District Court Judge Vince Chhabria, arguing that users had given consent to share their data with third parties.

"You have to closely guard something to have a reasonable expectation of privacy," he was quoted as saying in a Digital Trends report.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg survived a leadership vote at the social networking giant's annual general meeting on Thursday to step down as Chairman.