Canada, B.C. in joint investigations of Facebook, AggregateIQ

FILE PHOTO: Facebook logo is seen at a start-up companies gathering at Paris' Station F in Paris, France on January 17, 2017. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer/File Photo

VANCOUVER (Reuters) - The Canadian federal agency charged with protecting privacy rights of individuals said on Thursday that it, along with its counterpart in British Columbia, will jointly investigate Facebook Inc <FB.O> and Canadian data firm AggregateIQ, over an ongoing data sharing scandal.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada said the probes, which broaden two existing investigations, will look at whether the companies broke federal and provincial personal privacy rules.

Canada's privacy commissioner launched an investigation of Facebook in March after the New York Times and London's Observer newspaper broke news of the use of Facebook data by political consultancy Cambridge Analytica.

FILE PHOTO: A woman walks past an empty office suite, which had until recently been used by Canadian data firm AggregateIQ, in a building in Victoria, B.C., Canada March 27, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Light

Facebook Canada said on Wednesday that more than 600,000 Canadians had their data "improperly shared" with Cambridge Analytica.

British Columbia's privacy commissioner was separately investigating AggregateIQ over whether the Victoria-based company had broken provincial personal privacy rules for its role in the Brexit campaign.

The two agencies will now jointly investigate the companies, as they are subject to both federal and provincial personal privacy laws.

(Reporting by Julie Gordon in Vancouver; Editing by Chris Reese and Richard Chang)