British and American lawyers have filed a joint class action lawsuit against Facebook, Cambridge Analytica, and two other companies for allegedly misusing personal data of more than 71 million people.

According to the lawsuit, the companies took personal data stored on Facebook and used it to create ‘political propaganda campaigns’ in both Britain and the United States.

The lawsuit blames Facebook for allowing the personal data of 70 million Americans and over 1 million Britons to be used during the Brexit referendum and the 2016 US presidential elections.

News of the lawsuit was reported by The Guardian.

The other companies named in the lawsuit are SCL Group Limited and Global Science Research Limited.

British and American lawyers have filed a joint class action lawsuit against Facebook, Cambridge Analytica, and two other companies for allegedly misusing personal data of more than 71 million people. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (above) testifies before Congress

Facebook says most of the users caught up in the Cambridge Analytica scandal are in the US, with more than a million each in the Philippines, Indonesia and the UK.

US law firm Hagens Berman filed the class-action suit with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on April 9 to represent the millions of Americans whose data were shared improperly.

Damages in this case include both the dissemination of personal information and the loss of its sales value.

It's not yet clear how much money the affected users could be compensated, though lawyers in the UK have estimated it could be upwards of £10,000-£12,500 ($14,000-17,000) for some.

Cambridge Analytica is accused of mining personal data of Facebook users to aid the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump. Trump is seen above in Lisbon, Maine on October 28, 2016

The amounts, however, will ultimately be determined at trial, Hagens Berman says.

All four companies have denied wrongdoing.

The class action lawsuit is just the latest legal headache for the social network.

Last month, three users of the Facebook Messenger app sued Facebook saying the social network violated their privacy by collecting logs of their phone calls and text messages.

The US lawsuit filed in federal court in the Northern District of California seeks status as a class action on behalf of all affected users and asks for unspecified damages.

WHAT IS THE LEGAL IMPACT OF THE CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA SCANDAL? News that Trump-affiliated company Cambridge Analytica used data mined from Facebook user's to try and influence the US presidential election may trigger a wave of lawsuits, according to experts. Vanessa Barnett, a commercial lawyer and data protection expert at Keystone Law, believes it's 'very likely' we will see a slew of legal cases against the firms in the wake of the scandal. Speaking to MailOnline, she said: 'In the UK, users can take direct action for damages caused to them by a data breach – and that includes damages for distress. 'How that translates into a "pounds, shillings, pence" type number for each person would depend on the nature of the damage.' 'We have case law where the Home Office revealed personal data of asylum seekers, including potentially where they lived. Some of those individuals were awarded £12,500 ($14,000) in damages. 'It remains to be seen if the damage caused by the Cambridge Analytica scandal is comparable.' Ms Barnett says that a number of consumer rights focused groups are looking at the possibility of a class action lawsuit, a more regular feature of the US legal system than in the UK. A class action lawsuit filed against the firm in America is now seeking compensation for the roughly 70 million US users who were affected. Ms Barnett added: 'Years ago we just had Max Schrems vs Facebook, and he didn’t do too bad, but now it’s much more in the public consciousness. 'If the mechanics to participate in a class action are easy, I can see many users joining in.' Advertisement

Facebook acknowledged that it had been logging some users' call and text history but said it had done so only when users of the Android operating system had opted in.

Facebook said that it does not collect the content of calls or text messages, and that information is securely stored.

The data is not sold to third parties, it said.

The plaintiffs argue that prior to this Android update, Facebook 'exploited a vulnerability' in the permissions settings for Messenger and Facebook Lite.

It alleges that Facebook scraped 'years worth' of call and text data, including whether it was 'incoming', 'outgoing' or 'missed', as well as the date and time of each call, the number dialed, the individual called, and the duration of each call.

Android is owned by Alphabet Inc's Google, which is not named as a defendant in the suit.



Facebook has launched a new tool that lets you check whether your data was harvested by Cambridge Analytica.

Facebook users' data was also allegedly misused during the campaign for the Brexit referendum. The above June 2016 file photo shows protesters holding an EU flag in London

Starting Tuesday, Facebook's 2.2 billions users began to receive a notification on their news feed.

Titled 'Protecting Your Information,' it contains a link to let you see what apps you use and what information you have shared with them.

A separate tool lets you manually check whether you or your friends logged into the 'This Is Your Digital Life' quiz responsible for the data grab.

Around 87 million users who may have had their information shared with Cambridge Analytica will get a more detailed message explaining this, according to Facebook.

However, the whistleblower behind the revelations about the consultancy firm says the true number affected by the scandal could be far higher.