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Facebook users considering legal action against company following data scandal

Jerry Jackson said he's considering suing the social media company for $3.5.
Credit: LOIC VENANCE/AFP/Getty Images
A picture taken on November 20, 2017 shows logos of US online social media and social networking service Facebook.

Social media company Facebook is facing backlash after accusations have surfaced that profile information was stolen from nearly 50 million users to help the Trump campaign.

It all starts in 2014 when Facebook asked users to take a personality quiz, popular on Facebook for a while. A University of Cambridge professor harvested all the data from the quizzes from the tens of millions of Facebook users who took them.

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The data was eventually transferred to Cambridge Analytica, a controversial political consulting company that creates really detailed profiles on voters.

In 2016, the Trump campaign paid the company millions of dollars for that information. Facebook said that was an improper use of the data and told the group to delete all the profiles, but that's not stopping users from feeling violated.

Lawmakers are pushing for answers as investigators of the company move to file lawsuits. Now, individual Facebook users, like local man Jerry Jackson, are wondering if they can do the same thing.

11Alive's Natisha Lance spoke to Jackson who said he feels he's been used.

"It's shocking to my conscience, just as it is shocking to many other people's conscience, that we have been used in such a way and possibly manipulated to even bear hate to our friends because of information fed to us by Facebook," Jackson said. "We need for these things with Facebook to stop and if they did indeed violate some serious federal laws or other laws, then they need to pay the price for that.

Jackson said he is seeking $3.5 million but said he will still keep using Facebook, at least for now. So far, Jackson said he hasn't found an attorney to take his case.

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