OTTAWA—Facebook says it doesn’t yet know whether Canadian users’ personal information was swept up in a massive data-harvesting scheme embroiling the social media company.An employee with Facebook’s Canadian arm, who declined to speak on the record Tuesday, said the company was looking into whether or not Canadian users’ data was collected and shared with Cambridge Analytica.The employee said the company doesn’t have enough data to say conclusively one way or the other. The statement came as officials in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom pursue separate investigations into Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, the political consulting company at the centre of the scandal.A joint investigation by The New York Times and The Observer of London reported that Cambridge Analytica obtained the personal data of 50 million North American Facebook users.According to the report, the data was harvested by an American researcher who used personality quizzes on the ubiquitous social media platform.The U.K.-based company then used that data for its political consulting work for both U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign, as well as the successful “Leave” side in the Brexit referendum. In a video, secretly recorded by U.K. outlet Channel 4, Cambridge CEO Alexander Nix claimed credit for Trump’s election.Nix was suspended from Cambridge Analytica on Tuesday, The Guardian reported.Speaking to reporters outside Canada’s House of Commons on Tuesday, acting Democratic Institutions Minister Scott Brison said the government is open to hauling Facebook executives before a parliamentary committee and is considering stronger privacy laws in the wake of the scandal.“Social media platforms have a responsibility to protect the privacy and personal data of citizens and to protect the integrity of our electoral system where they operate,” said Brison.“We have strong privacy laws in Canada now. We a ...
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