Facebook needs to have more control over third-party apps that request information from it, says the head of Internet New Zealand.
Facebook Photo: 123RF
American firm Cambridge Analytica has been accused of illegally harvesting personal data from 50 million Facebook users in order to influence the last US presidential election and the Brexit referendum.
The company has lost $US58 billion in value this week, in the wake of the allegations.
Internet NZ chief executive Jordan Carter said Facebook breached its own terms and conditions by allowing the company to use the data in this way.
"If you're a massive organisation like that and you're allowing access to your information, you do have a responsibility to make sure that people are following the rules you put in place. Essentially, I don't think they should be granting access if they can't do the compliance work to make sure their own processes in the law are being followed."
He said proposed changes to privacy law would make it harder for those who misuse personal data to get away with it.
The bill - introduced by the government last week - makes several changes to the current Privacy Act.
Mr Carter said the current law was outdated and the new changes were needed.
"There are some good things in the new privacy bill that has been launched. One of those, for example, is talking about mandatory disclosure of information breaches, so if that kind of process was in place here and something similar happened, Facebook would then be obliged to the New Zealand Privacy Commission."
Meanwhile, Investigators from Britain's data watchdog have searched the London offices of Cambridge Analytica, the data analytics firm at the centre of the storm.
About 20 officials, wearing black jackets with "ICO Enforcement" on them, arrived at the firm's central London offices on Friday evening soon after a High Court judge granted a search warrant sought by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
"We will now need to assess and consider the evidence before deciding the next steps and coming to any conclusions," an ICO spokesperson said in a statement.
The officials, who were let into the building by security guards, were seen checking books and papers through the windows of the second-floor offices on London's busy New Oxford Street, a Reuters witness said.
Elizabeth Denham, head of the ICO, sought the warrant after a whistleblower said Cambridge Analytica had gathered private information of 50 million Facebook users to support Donald Trump's 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.
Britain is investigating whether Facebook, the world's largest social media network, did enough to protect data.
US lawmakers on Friday asked Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg to come to Congress to explain to explain how the data got into Cambridge Analytica's hands, adding to pressure on the firm, which is under fire from investors and advertisers.
- RNZ / Reuters
