Facebook found itself in hot water as the U.S. Federal Trade Commission publicly confirmed on March 26 that it was investigating the social media giant as a result of the Cambridge Analytica (CA) scandal. CA is a British political-marketing firm that illicitly obtained data on up to 50 million Facebook users that it then used to try to influence voters during the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the UK Brexit vote.

The prevalence of such privacy infringement cases has underlined the importance of online personal information protection, including users' age, gender, educational background, relationship status and employment. How should Internet companies strike a balance between proper use of big data and the protection of users' personal information and between business ethics and commercial value? Self-discipline is indispensable but is far from enough.

According to laws and regulations in many countries, companies are required to explain to customers the use of the information they collect and get customers' permission. Such practices reflect concern for consumers' core interests, effectively protecting the market order.

The advancement of technologies should not come at the expense of privacy violations. Consumers need more convenient and efficient technological services but they don't want to expose themselves unprotected to others. Personal information needs more protection online so as to enable Internet users to embrace new services worry-free and to realize the sustainable and safe development of the Internet.

(This is an edited excerpt of an article published in People's Daily on March 26)