Israel Opens Investigation Into Facebook Over Cambridge Analytica Breach
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s Justice Ministry has opened an investigation into Facebook amid reports of the transfer of users’ data from the social media platform to the British data-mining company Cambridge Analytica.
The ministry’s Privacy Protection Authority said in a statement Thursday that it will “investigate whether personal data of Israeli citizens was illegally used in a way that infringes upon their right to privacy and the provisions of the Israeli Privacy Law.”
Under the Israeli privacy law, personal data may only be used to the purpose for which it was given and with the consent of the individual.
Cambridge Analytica, a company launched by former Trump adviser Stephen Bannon and bankrolled by the Republican donor Robert Mercer, is alleged to have improperly received data on potential voters from a researcher and app developer who had violated Facebook policy.
Over the weekend, news outlets reported that the user data collected were used to influence the vote in the 2016 presidential election. The Trump campaign reportedly paid Cambridge Analytica more than $6 million, according to federal election records. As many as 200,000 U.S. citizens live in Israel and have the right to vote in the U.S. election, Haaretz reported, citing iVoteIsrael.
The CEO of Cambridge Analytica claimed to an undercover reporter posing as a potential client to have used Israeli companies and former Israeli spies in its intelligence gathering. The report by a British TV station did not connect the Israeli companies with the reported Trump operation.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
