It’s true that the Cambridge Analytica incident wasn’t a security breach. It was something far worse.

Sandy Parakilas says numerous companies deployed these techniques – likely affecting hundreds of millions of users – and that Facebook looked the other way

It could get blocked if it refuses

The social network was said to have reached a deal with the executive to depart after disagreements over how to address its role in spreading disinformation.

It is easy to be misled into believing that the Cambridge Analytica story is about rogue data miners taking advantage of an innocent Facebook. Facebook’s decision to suspend Cambridge Analytica’s access, the use of terms like “data breach”, and a good deal of coverage in the media seems to follow these lines. That, however, misses the key point.