“Privacy on Facebook is a contradiction in terms,” said Silkie Carlo, the director of Big Brother Watch.
“This ‘scandal’ isn’t a data breach, but rather Facebook’s business model laid bare. People have finally been confronted with the democratic risks of big data exploitation that privacy advocates like us have been warning about for years.
“We also need to ask what kind of influencing could Facebook do in pursuit of its own commercial or political interests, or even in response to government pressures, with its 2.2 billion profiles,” Ms Carlo told Sky News.
“The risks of our personal information being exploited and our opinions being manipulated are inherent to Facebook as a platform and people need to make an informed choice about whether they’re willing to be put at that risk.”