The Federal Trade Commission is investigating Facebook and its founder has been asked to testify before a Senate committee on consumer privacy protections.
Houston Internet attorney Travis Crabtree says he'd like to believe the Cambridge Analytica scandal is a one off thing, but we're dealing with human nature.
"What it shows is that any time humans are involved there's an opportunity to break the rules and Facebook doesn't necessarily have the safeguards in place to prevent this."
Crabtree says we're entering an era where the pendulum is swinging toward privacy regulation rather than unfettered advertising.
"The Federal Trade Commission says you'd better disclose what you do and when you say you're not going to do certain things with data, you'd better not do it."
Facebook insists the British company stole user data it intended to keep private.
However, it's dangerous to just sit around and expect laws to keep your information secure. Crabtree says some of this is on you.
"In 2018 I would expect most people to believe that if you're taking a personality quiz to find out which Renaissance painting you are, you should know you're giving up some of your privacy and you're giving up your privacy so that people can sell advertising."
The FTC and European authorities are investigating Facebook's privacy practices and Facebook stock has lost a lot of value this week.