Pocket-change fine for Facebook for violating data protection laws
The fine by the UK's Information Commissioner’s Office is the highest possible under old rules that predated 2018's EU revamp of privacy penalties
Brussels — Facebook was slapped with a symbolic £500,000 fine by the UK’s privacy regulator for “serious” violations of data protection rules that paved the way for the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The fine is the highest possible for the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) under old rules that predated this year’s EU revamp of privacy penalties. The ICO said that between 2007 and 2014, “Facebook processed the personal information of users unfairly by allowing application developers access to their information without sufficiently clear and informed consent.” The revelations that data belonging to millions of Facebook users and their friends may have been misused triggered a global backlash from investors and regulators. The ICO has led the European investigations into how such an amount of data — most belonging to US and UK residents — could have ended up in the hands of Cambridge Analytica, a consulting firm that worked on Donald Trump’s US presidential campaign. “Facebook als...
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