Australia’s
privacy
watchdog
can
proceed
with
a
Federal
Court
case
against
Facebook
over
the
Cambridge
Analytica
scandal
after
the
High
Court
declined
to
intervene.
The
Office
of
the
Australian
Information
Commissioner
(OAIC) originally
began
its investigation
into
Facebook in
2018,
and
in
2020 launched
legal
action against
US-based
Facebook
Inc
and
Facebook
Ireland
over
the
311,127
Australians
caught
up
in
the
global
data
harvesting
scandal.
Since
then,
Facebook
has
progressively
escalated
a
series
of
appeals
over
whether
its
US-based
entity
can
be
served
with
legal
papers
by
an
Australian
court.
Law
firms
recognised
early
on
that
the
jurisdictional
issue
could
set
a
precedent
for
privacy
cases
filed
in
Australia,
and
flagged
it
as
“likely
to
be
significantly
contested
at
any
hearing”.
Facebook
argued
that
it
did
not
conduct
business
in
Australia
at
the
time
more
than
300,000
Australians
allegedly
had
their
privacy
breached
in
the
Cambridge
Analytica
scandal,
because
it
had
neither
an
Australian
office
nor
staff
here.
Facebook
originally
had
its
jurisdictional
arguments
accepted,
but
in
February
last
year
that
was overturned
by
the
full
bench
of
the
Federal
Court.
The
social
media
giant
then
sought
and
was
granted
special
leave
to
appeal
to
the
High
Court
of
Australia
in
September
last
year.
But
the
grant
of
special
leave
was
yesterday
revoked
due
to
a
change
in
court
rules
that
came
into
effect
in
January
this
year.
That
clears
the
way
for
the
case
to
be
heard
by
the
Federal
Court,
which
could
expose
Facebook’s
US
and
Ireland
entities
to
civil
penalties
over
Cambridge
Analytica.
“Today’s
decision
is
an
important
step
in
ensuring
that
global
digital
platforms
can
be
held
to
account
when
handling
the
personal
information
of
Australians,”
Australian
information
commissioner
and
privacy
commissioner
Angelene
Falk
said
in
a
statement.
“Entities
operating
in
Australia
are
accountable
for
breaches
of
Australian
privacy
law,
and
must
ensure
that
their
operations
in
Australia
comply
with
that
law.”
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