Facebook sued for ‘losing control’ of users’ data
I'm no Facebook fan but the reasons behind the lawsuit are bad and could set a bad precedent.<p>Cambridge Analytica used the Facebook API to ask users to share data about them & their friends. Stupid users agreed to that.<p>The argument here isn't that Facebook is playing fast and loose with tracking & user data (which would be a legitimate argument), it's that Facebook is allowing people to grant access to their data to third-parties and Facebook should somehow be faulted for that. Facebook is a neutral carrier here, and they acted on behalf of the user - he decided that Cambridge Analytica should have had access to his data. Facebook should not be forced to somehow be the arbiter of this.<p>This lawsuit will give even more reasons to platforms to restrict API access which would impact legitimate usage much more than nefarious abuse (stupid people will always find a way to screw up, API or not - if the API is gone they'd happily enter their Facebook credentials directly instead).