Last Updated Mar 20, 2018 12:21 PM EDT
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The data privacy scandal engulfing Facebook (FB) continues to grow, with the social-media giant facing calls for answers about how data firm Cambridge Analytica acquired the personal data of 50 million Facebook users.
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Facebook to hold emergency meeting
Facebook has scheduled an employee meeting at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET to allow its staff to ask questions about the unfolding controversy, according to The Verge.
Its deputy general counsel, Paul Grewal, is expected to take questions through an internal poll. Employees will be attending in person and via live stream, The Verge noted. It is unclear whether CEO Mark Zuckerberg will speak at the meeting.
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Shares continue to slide
Facebook’s stock price fell more than 5 percent, to $163.19, in early trading on Tuesday. That follows a decline of almost 7 percent on Monday, which shaved almost $40 billion from Facebook’s market value and which represents the biggest single-day decline in the company’s shares in four years.
Credit Suisse analysts said in a research note that negative headlines could continue to weigh on Facebook’s stock in the coming weeks, citing demands by lawmakers that CEO Mark Zuckerberg appear before Congress to address the Cambridge Analytica controversy.
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FTC reportedly investigating Facebook
The Federal Trade Commission is reportedly investigating whether revelations that data firm Cambridge Analytica harvested personal data from millions of Facebook users violates a previous order by the regulatory agency targeting Facebook, according to Bloomberg News.
Under that 2011 agreement, Facebook said it would make changes to protect its users’ privacy, including providing them with “clear and prominent notice” and asking for their “express consent” before their information would be shared beyond their privacy settings.
“We are aware of the issues that have been raised but cannot comment on whether we are investigating,” an FTC spokeswoman told CBS MoneyWatch. “We take any allegations of violations of our consent decrees very seriously as we did in 2012 in a privacy case involving Google.”
Facebook says it initially gave out the data to a researcher who claimed it would be used only for academic purposes. Facebook claims the researcher then “lied to us” and passed the content onto Cambridge Analytica. That firm then used the data to build “psychographic profiles” about voters.
