Pa. A.G. Shapiro Reviewing Whether Facebook Broke State Laws
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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro is reviewing whether Facebook broke state laws when its user data was transferred by third parties, possibly for political purposes by the Donald Trump campaign.
Appearing on CNBC, Shapiro suggested this situation could be worse than the normal hacker breaking in.
"With Facebook, they didn't have to break in. Facebook gave them the keys, and said come on in and take what you want, and use it for profit, use it for what you want," he said.
"And that's not something we are going to stand up and tolerate," said Shapiro.
Shapiro recently sued Uber for failing to disclose data breaches and has an ongoing investigation of Equifax.
"All of these data breach cases together really follow the same pattern," he said. "You have companies who are more focused on taking a dollar of profit and putting it in their own pocket rather than taking a dollar into protecting your data, protecting your information."
Facebook billionaire Mark Zuckerberg has apologized for allowing Facebook user data to end up in the hands of Cambridge Analytica.
"This was a major breach of trust, and I'm really sorry this happened," says Zuckerberg. "We have a major responsibility to protect people's data, and if we don't do that, then we don't deserve to have the opportunity to serve people."
At a taping of the KD/PG Sunday Edition on Friday, local experts discussed the Facebook action.
"Is Facebook doomed?" KDKA money editor Jon Delano asked Prof. Heather Starr-Fiedler from Point Park University.
"This just may be the opportunity for these other social media networks to get their foot in the door because they took a really big hit this week," she said.
No word yet on whether Shapiro will take legal action.