The US Securities and Exchange Commission is reportedly investigating whether Facebook should have notified shareholders earlier about Cambridge Analytica’s misuse of user data. The company had known about this for several years.
According to sources from The Wall Street Journal, the SEC wants to know how much Facebook knew before the flood of publications started this spring about data company Cambridge Analytica. The data company had access to data from tens of millions of Facebook users thanks to a quiz and unauthorized access to APIs.
The watchdog is investigating whether it concerns information that Facebook knew could influence the stock price. The share price of Facebook fell after publications about the scandal, but has now returned to its previous level. Facebook and SEC have not commented on the article. SEC previously investigated Facebook because of the IPO but then decided not to impose sanctions.
The Cambridge Analytica scandal came out in March. Through a scientist’s personality quiz, the company obtained data from 87 million Facebook users and used that data for targeted advertising in the United States presidential election.