Aussie privacy commissioner to investigate Facebook over major data breach

CANBERRA, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Australia's privacy commissioner has opened an investigation into whether Facebook's Cambridge Analytica data leak breached the Australian Privacy Act.

Angelene Falk, acting Australian information commissioner and acting privacy commissioner, announced the inquiry after Facebook confirmed that 311,127 Australian users were among the 82 million global users whose data were "improperly" shared with the British political consultancy firm.

"All organisations that are covered by the Privacy Act have obligations in relation to the personal information that they hold," Falk said in a statement.

"This includes taking reasonable steps to ensure that personal information is held securely, and ensure that customers are adequately notified about the collection and handling of their personal information.

"Organisations should regularly and proactively assess their information-handling practices to ensure that they are both compliant with privacy laws and in keeping with community expectations."

The Australian government has responded to the announcement of Falk's inquiry with acting Attorney-General (AG) Marise Payne, saying it would "await the outcome" of the investigation.

According to the Australian Privacy Act, entities have data breach obligations "when a data breach is likely to result in serious harm to any individuals whose personal information is involved in the breach."

Australians caught up in the scandal accounted for 0.4 percent of all the affected users but Facebook said it still does not know exactly how people were impacted. Enditem