California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has revealed that the State of California has been conducting an 18-month long probe into the questionable privacy practices of Facebook (FB  ). The revelation is more bad news for the social media giant, considering that similar probes are underway in 47 states throughout the country.

Facebook is no stranger to controversy, especially regarding the privacy of its users. Recently, however, Facebook has been coming under increasing scrutiny due to its controversial practices, such as leaking private data to Cambridge Analytica, to lying about improved privacy protections for users but in turn making it easier to sell personal data. The most recent and perhaps most concerning scandal involves Facebook's willingness to allow false political ads on its platform.

The investigation led by AG Becerra originally began as an investigation into the Cambridge Analytica scandal, but grew over time into a broader investigation into whether "Facebook has violated California law, by among other things, deceiving users and ignoring its policies in allowing third parties broad access to user data."

Facebook has been insistent that it has been cooperative with the investigation, with Facebook Vice President of State and Local Policy Will Castleberry stating, "To date, we have provided thousands of pages of written responses and hundreds of thousands of documents." The Attorney General's office is keen to disagree, however. A spokesperson for the Attorney General was quoted as saying, "It appears we have different definitions of cooperation." To date, the company has refused to answer 19 of the 27 written questions submitted by the AG and has given only partial responses for six others.

Becerra is now taking Facebook to court to force the company into compliance with the investigation. The move is a result of Facebook's reluctance to answer questions and its inability to comply with subpoenas issued by Becerra's office. In his court filings Becerra states that "Facebook has not searched the email of the company's chief executive and chief operating officers for documents responsive to the subpoena."

Concerns are arising as to whether Facebook was aware of the conduct of its executives. The question has also been raised as to why Facebook has allowed third-party app developers access to private data, which was used to build profiles of the user's preferences and personal information, with said profiles being sold to third parties such as advertisers.

If Becerra's efforts in the courts succeed, Facebook will be forced to address these concerns and turn over materials related to the incidents in question. Specifically, Becerra hopes to obtain documentation that discloses if and why Facebook allowed it's business partners access to private data despite some users having opted out of allowing their data to be accessible, as well as explanations as to how its software allowed outsiders access to user data.